


a billion stars in the sky (you're the brightest one)

by eveningsapphic



Category: Dreamcatcher (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Domestic, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, jiyoo, police detective minji, side damdong, side suayeon, single mom yoohyeon, yoga instructor yoohyeon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-01
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2020-07-28 18:40:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20068726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eveningsapphic/pseuds/eveningsapphic
Summary: Minji is a hardworking police detective with no life. Yoohyeon is a new and exciting yoga instructor that Minji definitely is not going to fall for.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a new story i'm working on, i'm not sure how many chapters it will have, but here's the first one anyways. It's just a lot of domestic fluff really, and there's not enough jiyoo on this site so here's my contribution, hope you'll like it :)
> 
> It's rated T for now, but the rating will probably change when i upload more chapters

“How are things with Siyeon?” asked Minji over her latte where she and Bora sat at the coffee shop. They were on lunch break, and as good friends and colleagues, they decided to get some coffee together.

“Good I think,” said Bora, smiling into her mocha. She and Siyeon had been together for almost five years, and Minji couldn’t help but envy their relationship. She herself had been single for those same five years.

“You guys talking about me?” said a bright voice by Minji’s right side. Siyeon had appeared at their table, holding a plastic refill mug, looking cheerful as ever in her rainbow-coloured hair. The dye was fading and her dark brown roots were showing, but the effect was still up-lifting as ever.

“Not really,” said Bora, looking up at Siyeon with a fond smile on her face. Siyeon worked as a freelance painter, but this coffee shop was her day job, and Bora visited as often as her work would allow her. Minji and Bora both worked at the police house as detectives, partners, actually, and although their work kept them busy enough, a few coffee breaks had to be justified.

“D’you want more coffee?” Siyeon asked. “Or else I’m afraid I’ll have to leave you, it’s really busy right now.” The café really was crowded; probably a lot of other lunch breaks around.

“We should go anyways,” said Bora. “I’m afraid lunch has been over for five minutes already.”

“Tsk, you should be more responsible, the both of you,” said Siyeon brightly. “Especially you Minji, I mean I know Bora is no good but I thought better of you.” She laughed and leaned in to smooch Bora giggly on the cheek, before retreating to serve other coffee-starved, over-worked people instead. “See ya!” she said as she left.

“Hm she’s right, we’re way too irresponsible,” mused Minji on their way out of the shop. “It’s ten past already.”

“You stress too much,” said Bora. “You should do some yoga or something.”

“I don’t think so.” Minji’s voice was sceptical, as it usually was.

“I’m not kidding,” said Bora lightly. “My yoga instructor is great. It’s actually great for destressing. I mean, how are you supposed to focus on work if you’re always stressed about  
work? It’s like an evil circle.”

Minji didn’t say anything.

“She’s really cute, by the way,” said Bora irrelevantly.

“Who?” said Minji, distracted.

“The yoga instructor. She’s blonde. You like blondes.”

“First of all, stop trying to set me up with people. I don’t need it. Second of all, I’ve never said I like blondes.”

“You’re in luck then, I don’t think she’s naturally blonde,” said Bora, completely ignoring the first part of what Minji said.

“Why do you keep talking about blondes and yoga instructors anyway? You have a girlfriend already.” Minji was getting annoyed, and she was stuck with Bora for the rest of the day. They’d got back to the station, and Minji was already busy fretting over the paperwork that should have been finished before lunch.

“Siyeon also thinks she’s cute,” said Bora, not looking at the paperwork at all.

“Siyeon doesn’t do yoga.”

“She does, I forced her to come, and guess what? She thinks it’s great. You don’t have to go if you don’t want to, it was just a suggestion. You never do anything; you just work all day and then you go home and do more work. It’s not healthy to not have a life, Minji.”

“I do have a life!”

“Really? What are you doing tonight then?”

“None of your business. Do you go around announcing to everyone at work what you’re up to in your free-time?”

“I’m not everyone at work, I’m your best friend.” Bora sighed. “I was just trying to do you a favour, I’m sorry if I upset you.” She genuinely looked sorry. Bora had a big mouth and often spoke before she thought, and usually that was something Minji liked about her, Bora being one of the more exciting aspects of her life. But sometimes she was too much for Minji to handle, and she got mad without meaning to.

“Look, I’m sorry…”

“No, don’t be sorry. I wasn’t thinking, of course I don’t think that you don’t have a life. There’s nothing wrong with being devoted to your work, in fact, I should be more like you, I’m way too careless, honestly…”

“But you’re right, it’s no good to always work, all the time. Maybe I could hang out with you guys after work, just go out or something?”  
Bora smiled widely. “Yes! I’d like that very much. It’s been way too long since we’ve actually met outside of work and actually talked outside of coffee breaks!”

“I’m not sure if I want to do yoga, though,” said Minji quickly.

“Don’t worry, I was thinking more going out for drinks or something,” said Bora. “Or we could just stay at home and take advantage of Siyeon’s bartending skills, she makes great mojitos.”

“We’ll figure something out,” said Minji. “But only if we finish the paperwork for this case, so we better get started.”

\---

Minji’s life wasn’t bad. It truly wasn’t. She had her job, which she liked very much, she had good friends in Bora and Siyeon, and she had hobbies. She liked running and exercising to keep in shape, but she supposed she didn’t really have any _fun_ hobbies, when considering it. Siyeon had her art (which turned into work when she occasionally sold a painting) and Bora had her dancing and yoga and who knew what else, but Minji never seemed to have a lot of _fun_ herself. She would hang out with Bora and Siyeon and have fun with them, but even they didn’t have time all the time, and she didn’t exactly want to intrude on their relationship. Minji had voiced her concerns on always being the third wheel after they had started to see each other more after work, but Bora had insisted that there was no such thing.

She still felt slightly out of place. It wasn’t like she had a lot of time to spare either, she mostly had extra work to do, and she enjoyed it too. Yet, she couldn’t help but think about what Bora had said to her that time. That she never _did_ anything. Not really.

This seemed like such an unnecessary thing to worry about; she was a grown woman for god’s sake, surely she should be able to find something to do by herself, without needing her friends to babysit her.

The thing was, she had no creativity when it came to these things; it was usually Bora or Siyeon who came up with ideas of what to do, so maybe she shouldn’t have been so surprised in herself when she started to consider Bora’s suggestion from so many weeks back. It had been nearly Christmas at the time, but now it was spring, the time for new beginnings, so why not, really? Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. And Bora had said that the instructor was cute… No. If she was going, it was not to flirt with instructors, however cute they may be. She was going because she wanted to try something new, and to show Bora that yes, she did actually listen to her suggestions. Except Bora would totally tease her about the instructor… Right. She didn’t have to tell Bora. She could just go on her own. She was perfectly capable of social interactions by herself, thank you very much, and yoga wasn’t exactly a big social event. It was just yoga. No big deal.

And that was how Minji found herself at the local yoga studio Saturday morning, a newly acquired yoga mat in hand, by the front desk to pay for a drop-in class. She wasn’t sure how many instructors there were, or which classes the “cute one” had, but she had decided not to care, as she definitely wasn’t there to meet girls. She didn’t even know who that girl was; she didn’t know her name or what she looked like. She definitely wasn’t going to ask Bora.

About twenty other people was pouring into the room Minji was headed for; a few young girls, but mostly middle-aged hippie moms who probably posted on Facebook about how they had found their inner peace through yoga and couldn’t possibly manage without that and their fruit smoothies. Minji recognised the type. They all sported similar yoga pants and colourful mats. There were a few men too, probably being dragged there by their wives. Minji found a spot approximately in the middle of the room, not wanting to stand out by hiding in the back.

She was just rolling out her mat like everyone else was doing, when the door opened again, and another figure walked in. That was her, Minji thought. The instructor Bora had talked about. It had to be her, because Minji’s breath caught in her throat and she suddenly forgot all about the yoga mat. The young woman who walked into the room was tall, maybe taller than Minji, who was already quite tall. Minji could tell they were about the same height, but the woman carried herself in a different way than Minji did, her chin up and her legs long grace. She was indeed blonde, a bright platinum kind of blonde, but she had dark brown roots so Bora had been right about it being dyed.

Minji didn’t care if it was dyed or not. She had stopped to focus on her hair, and was fixating on her face, and yes, she really was cute. She had a bright smile that reached her eyes and round cheeks that made her look younger than she probably was. She was wearing yoga pants, of course, and a plain training bra, and she had her own, blue yoga mat. Minji’s was pink.

Everyone else had become silent too when she walked in, and she walked right up to the mirrored front wall, putting down her yoga mat and clasping her hands together like a very excited pre-school teacher. “Hi everyone!” she said cheerfully. Even her voice was cute, Minji thought. “Welcome to my class! I’ve seen many of you before, but there are some new faces among you too, which is great!” She scanned the room briefly, seeming determined to meet everyone’s eyes. Minji’s cheeks turned a light pink when the instructor looked at her, and she told herself she was just imagining things when she thought her gaze lingered a bit longer on her.

“I see most of you brought your own mats, but everyone’s free to borrow one if you need!” She pointed at a stack of plain black yoga mats in the corner. “Anyways, my name is Yoohyeon, and I hope you enjoy this class! Now, let’s start with some simple poses…”

The instructor, Yoohyeon (what a cute name), began demonstrating some yoga poses before the class, and everyone followed as best they could. Minji assumed this was mostly a hobby kind of class, it was a drop-in after all, and that most of the people here just attended to have fun and relax. Which, when thinking of it, was exactly what she had in mind too. A simple hobby that was fun and relaxing. She hadn’t exactly planned to go into professional yoga either, though it felt weird to do something just for the sake of it. Maybe Bora was right. Maybe she was too hung up on work.

Yoga wasn’t so bad. She supposed there were worse hobbies. The poses and stretches got more and more advanced, and Minji surprised herself by being one of the few who managed all of them with ease. Yoohyeon the instructor walked around and helped the more struggling ones, showing them how to properly twist and stretch, smiling and patting their backs in encouragement. She seemed to be smiling all the time, casually talking as she walked around, dropping charming words left and right. Minji wouldn’t be surprised if all her classes were this full.

As Minji managed the exercises easily, it wasn’t at all odd that the instructor never really looked her way, mostly busy with people who needed assistance, but Minji couldn’t help feeling slightly disappointed. She kept reminding herself that she wasn’t there to meet girls, and definitely not that girl, but still. She kind of wanted to feel the effect of her charming smile herself.

The class was just an hour long and ended quickly. A bit too quickly, Minji thought. But Bora had been right, it was actually quite destressing. Minji hadn’t thought about work the whole time. Maybe that was because she had been busy thinking of something (someone) else, but she wouldn’t say that to Bora. She would never give her the satisfaction.

She joined the others in rolling up her mat and heading for the door, everyone chattering and saying their goodbyes to Yoohyeon as they left. She, in turn, smiled and waved back, collecting her things and waiting patiently for everyone to pour out the door. Minji was just on her way out, when a hand touched her shoulder. She turned around and met Yoohyeon’s cheerful smile. “Hey,” she said.

“Hi?” said Minji, not quite knowing what to say.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” said Yoohyeon, “I was just wondering, if I might ask, do you usually take another class?”

“Uhm, no,” answered Minji. “This is my first time, actually.” She felt rather awkward. She had wanted Yoohyeon to notice her for the entire class, but now that she was, she didn’t know how to act.

“Oh, right! You see, I was just wondering because, I’ve never seen you here before, and you were doing all the poses perfectly, even the ones most people find really hard, so I figured you must’ve done it before.” She was talking fast, as if she felt just as awkward as Minji did, but her eyes were smiling and Minji found it all so very cute.

“Er, thanks,” said Minji. “I do a lot of other exercising, probably got something to do with using the same muscles or something… A friend recommended doing yoga, she said it was good for destressing and such…” She trailed off, not wanting to bore Yoohyeon with details of her boring life.

“Cool!” said Yoohyeon, ever as enthusiastic. “Was she here today? I don’t want to keep you from your friends.” She laughed a little. Minji found her laughter just as pretty as her.

“No, she was, uh, busy, I came by myself.”

“Cool.” Yoohyeon nodded. She looked like she wanted to say something, but hesitated. They lingered for a moment, neither of them saying anything. “I… I have another class in a few minutes, I better, you know.”

Minji nodded.

“Anyways, I hope I’ll see you around!” said Yoohyeon, and then suddenly widening her eyes as if she said something she shouldn’t have. “I mean, feel free to come back! If you enjoyed the class, that is.”

“I did,” said Minji. “I’ll probably come back next week, if I find the time…”

“Okay!” said Yoohyeon excitedly as a new batch of people started pouring in the door behind them. “I’ll see you then… maybe.” She smiled and gave a little wave, before going back to the front of the room to greet her next class. Minji waved half-heartedly back. _If I find the time_, she had said. She knew already then that it was a lie. There was no if. She would clear her entire work schedule to see that girl again, and that was saying something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first chapter was kind of short, but another chapter will hopefully be up soon! I don't really have a posting schedule, but i'm working on the second chapter now :)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter yay! This is even shorter than the last one, i hope this is an ok length for the chapters as it seems it's the only length i can write lol

Minji went to the yoga class every week. And every week she stayed and talked to Yoohyeon for a few minutes. They didn’t talk about anything in particular; just small talk about the class and work and other normal things. Even though it wasn’t anything very exciting or life changing, Minji found herself looking forward to her conversations with Yoohyeon more than anything else that happened during the weeks.

She hadn’t told Bora about any of this, more scared of being teased than anything else, and she had been lucky not to bump into her in any of the classes. She figured it wasn’t all that odd; Bora and Siyeon weren’t morning persons and would sleep in on the weekends unless Siyeon had a shift at the coffee shop. If Bora ever were to ask her if she wanted to go out on a Saturday morning, Minji would say she had work, which Bora usually didn’t question.

Minji had told Yoohyeon about Bora and Siyeon, and Yoohyeon had recognised them instantly when she described them; Siyeon’s colourful hair wasn’t easy to forget. She had asked why she didn’t take the same classes they did, but Minji had just waved it away with an explanation about how they had clashing schedules. Yoohyeon had apologised and said she didn’t mean to pry, and Minji had told her that she didn’t mind her prying one bit, to which she afterwards had blushed and sputtered an apology for her bluntness herself. Yoohyeon had just laughed and said she would make sure to keep prying.

Even so, they never really talked about their personal lives. Minji wasn’t sure she wanted to know; Yoohyeon was just a friendly instructor after all, and it was likely she had at least someone she was committed too, if she wasn’t already engaged or married. Minji hadn’t seen a ring of any sort, but it was possible she left it at home, right? Or Minji was just thinking too much, as usual. But she wasn’t going to pry, no matter how much she wanted to. She didn’t even know Yoohyeon. Sure, they had become sort of friends over the past few weeks, but they knew more or less nothing about each other, so it would be weird to suddenly ask if she was in a relationship, or? Was it socially acceptable to ask that of someone you had just met? Minji didn’t know. She didn’t know a lot about what was socially acceptable generally, that was why she had Bora. But she couldn’t ask her, could she?

Despite the yoga’s original purpose of making her less stressed, Minji felt more stressed than ever. It was a Friday in the middle of May when she sank down in Bora’s couch after working late, ready to spill everything. Siyeon was in the kitchen, probably making shady drinks of some sort, and Bora sat next to her, talking about something Minji hadn’t really paid attention to. Suddenly she realised Bora had stopped talking, and was now just looking cautiously at her. Minji couldn’t tell for how long she had been quiet.

“How is that yoga working for you?” she suddenly said.

“What?” Minji blinked. She must have heard wrong.

“The yoga you’ve been going to every Saturday for several weeks.”

“Oh, er, that. How did you know?”

“You’re not exactly subtle,” said Bora mysteriously.

Minji narrowed her eyes. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well,” said Bora. “I’m a very good detective.”

“I’m sure,” said Minji, slightly annoyed. “Now tell me how you know.”

“Ugh fine, killjoy. Yoohyeon, the instructor, told me that it was good of me to recommend yoga to ‘my friend’ and that she was very good, and when I asked what she was talking about, she said ‘your friend Minji who comes here every Saturday. She said you guys didn’t go together because of clashing schedules.’”

“Right,” said Minji. “I suppose I forgot to tell you.”

Bora rolled her eyes. “Why didn’t you though? Clashing schedules my ass, we could have gone together!”

“I didn’t want you to tease me! Knowing you, you would’ve started talking about how I should hit on the instructor right in front of her face.”

“I would not! Okay, maybe I would’ve. Is that what you’ve been so stressed about lately? Yoohyeon?” She said the last part carefully.

Minji sighed. “Maybe? I don’t know, she’s just really cute – I know, you told me so – but I don’t know her! She could have a boyfriend, or anything! I mean, I’ve talked to her a bit after the classes, but we’ve never really talked about anything important…”

“Never talked about what?” It was Siyeon coming from the kitchen, carrying a tray of colourful glasses.

“Minji has a crush on the hot yoga instructor but she doesn’t want to ask her out in case she has a boyfriend,” said Bora before Minji could answer.

“I knew it!” cheered Siyeon, setting down the tray to high five Bora.

“I didn’t say I wanted to ask her out,” said Minji indignant.

“Don’t you though?” asked Bora, reaching over to grab a bright violet drink from the table. “You think she’s cute, you like talking to her, you’re anxious to know if she has a ‘boyfriend or anything.’”

Siyeon nodded in agreement. “I think that means you want to ask her out, yes,” she said.

“Fine, so maybe I want to,” said Minji, sceptically stirring her red drink with a mini-umbrella. “But it doesn’t mean I’m going to. I’m not any good with this, how will I even ask? And wouldn’t it be weird to ask after such a long time of just small talk?”

Bora took her hand and squeezed it. “Just ask her,” she insisted. “I know social stuff is hard for you, but you’re actually good at talking to people, really. Who is it who always gets people to talk during interrogations, who always talks to relatives when there’s been an incident, who always manages to convince witnesses to testify? That’s you. And I’m not just saying this. I’m actually being serious for once.”

Minji smiled a bit. “Well if you’re being serious about something, it’s gotta be important, right?”

“Right,” said Bora determinedly. “Also, if you don’t talk to her, I will, and you really don’t want that.”

Minji sighed. “If you put it that way…”

Bora and Siyeon just laughed. Minji took a sip of her drink, which was surprisingly good. Tomorrow was Saturday, and she was going to meet Yoohyeon. She both dreaded it and looked forward to it at the same time.

\---

Yoohyeon was late today. She had been late once or twice before, but only a minute or two, and no one had ever questioned that. But now it had been five minutes, and someone had already been to the front desk to ask for her, even though Minji thought it was nonsense. It was only five minutes. Anyone could be five minutes late. Maybe she was stuck in traffic.

Minji had just sat down to do a little stretching while waiting, when she heard shuffling in the hall, and a moment later Yoohyeon burst through the door. “Hi everyone!” she said. Her voice was bright and cheerful as usual, if not a little out of breath. “Today we have a little friend with us, I hope that’s okay!”

Then Minji looked up. Yoohyeon was indeed not alone as she walked to the front of the room. She was carrying a little boy, probably around three or four years old, and she sat him down on the stack of yoga mats in the corner. She left her bag with him, opening it and digging around before fishing out a couple of toy cars and pillow that she placed behind the boy’s back. “Stay here darling, Mummy’s got some work to do, there’s cookies in the bag if you want some, okay?” She kissed the boy’s head, before turning to face the class. “Babysitter got sick,” she explained. “Class will be as normal, he’ll just sit and play here in the corner.” And then she went to plug in her phone at the speakers, putting on her regular relaxing music, and class started.

Minji’s head flooded with thoughts. _She had a son_. Which meant there had to be a father involved, somehow. But how involved was he? If Yoohyeon had to take her son to work because no one could look after him… Maybe the father was away for the weekend? She wondered if they were married. She had never seen a ring, but she had considered before that maybe she left it at home since it was unpractical to wear when doing yoga. It wasn’t her business, anyway. After her conversation with Bora and Siyeon the night before, she had actually gathered up some courage to ask Yoohyeon out today, but she definitely wouldn’t be doing that now.

The yoga class went on as usual, many of the middle-aged moms going to say hello to the boy when they went to refill their water bottles, and it was over after an hour, as usual. The moms went to say goodbye to the boy afterwards, and Minji went up to the front to talk to Yoohyeon, as she always did. She figured Yoohyeon probably wanted to tend to her son, but she didn’t want to be rude and leave without saying goodbye, at least.

Yoohyeon was sitting on the floor next to the boy when Minji walked over, patiently trying to get him to drink some apple juice from a small carton with a straw. He took a few sips and made a face, trying to bat the carton away with a small hand. Minji laughed. “He’s cute,” she said and sat down next to them.

Yoohyeon turned to her, smiling. “Thanks,” she said. “Even more when I don’t have to bring him to work.” Minji could hear tiredness in her voice. She wondered what had happened.

“What’s your name honey?” she asked in a baby voice.

“Wiyam,” answered the little boy, looking at her with the cautious eyes of a child who had been taught not to talk to strangers.

“William,” said Yoohyeon fondly. “This is Mummy’s friend Minji,” she said to her son.

“Is she a stranger?” he asked.

“No,” Yoohyeon laughed. “She’s your friend. You can talk to her. She’s not scary, I promise.”

“How old are you?” asked Minji.

“Three and a half,” said William, holding up two fingers and one bent thumb.

“Wow, so big!” exclaimed Minji. “You’re going to be four soon, that’s even bigger!”

“Yes!” said William excitedly. Then he turned to his mother. “Mummy, can I have your phone?” he asked, making puppy eyes.

“No, Mummy needs her phone for work,” said Yoohyeon. “But I brought your tablet, you can watch something on that if you like?” She started digging through her bag, finding a tablet and a pair of headphones that looked way too big for him. She clicked on the Netflix app, going into the Kids profile. “What do you wanna watch darling?”

She let William swipe through some titles, before he pointed at a colourful cover. “Cars!” he said and clicked on the movie.

Yoohyeon smiled. “Alright darling, Mummy’s gotta head back to work soon, just sit here and watch Cars, okay?” The boy nodded, already focused on the film.

She turned back to Minji. “I’m sorry about all this…” she started.

“No, it’s alright, it happens,” Minji assured her. “He’s really sweet.”

“I just don’t want to bother you with my mess…”

“You’re not bothering me,” said Minji quickly. “Honestly. How long are you here for, by the way? Is there anyone who can come pick him up…?”

“Not really,” said Yoohyeon, ducking her head. “My mother is out of town, and William’s father, well…” She trailed off, and Minji didn’t ask about it. “I have about an hour break at two, and my last class for the day starts at six. He can sit and watch movies, but…” She looked rather helpless, and Minji wanted very much to help.

“What if I take him?” she said, without thinking. “He can watch that movie, it’ll be about finished by two, right? Then I can come, and when you go back to work I can take him to eat, maybe bring him to the park or something…”

Yoohyeon looked very torn. Of course, the idea of not having to worry about her son for the last half of her workday seemed great, but leaving him with someone she didn’t even know that well… Minji didn’t blame her for being uncertain. “I don’t know… I don’t want to burden you or anything, but if you’re sure…”

“It wouldn’t be a burden,” Minji said, trying to replicate Bora’s usual confident tone. “He likes cars, right? I’ll take him to my job at the police station and let him look at the police cars, he can even sit in one if he wants.” Her last suggestion was partly to reassure Yoohyeon that she was, in fact, a decent person with a decent job, not just some creep who would steal her kid.

Yoohyeon actually seemed relieved. “Would you?” she said. “He would love that, I’m sure!”

“Of course,” said Minji. People who were attending the next class were starting to float into the room, and they both stood up, Yoohyeon picking up her water bottle. “I’ll come back at two then?”

“Thanks a lot,” said Yoohyeon. “See you then!” And then she walked back to the front of the room, ready to greet the next set of yoga enthusiasts. Minji left, more stressed than she had been in her entire life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked this chapter! I'm working on the next one already so i hope it will be up soon :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is mostly just Minji watching William all day, and it's seriously some of the fluffiest shit I've ever written. Honestly it's just very cute and fluffy. No plot, just fluff lol

The first thing she did was call Bora. “Where are you guys?” she asked hastily.

“Uh, Warner Bros. Studios?” she replied.

“What?!” exclaimed Minji. “You went to Harry Potter world? Today?”

“Why, did something happen?” asked Bora, now sounding slightly concerned.

“Not exactly. I just… didn’t know you were…” Minji took a moment to calm down. Going to Harry Potter world was just something Bora and Siyeon would randomly do, but why exactly today, when she needed their help?

“I told you yesterday,” said Bora from the other side of the phone. “You said you didn’t want to come. We thought you’d be busy anyway…”

“Well I am busy,” stressed Minji, “but not in a good way. What do kids like to do?”

“Kids? Um, I don’t know, play Star Wars? Why?”

“I’m kind of a babysitter now, I’ll explain later, but I have to pick him up at two and keep him for almost five hours. What on earth to kids do for five hours?”

“Literally no idea. Give him ice cream and let him run around in the park, apparently kids can run around for ages. Let him go crazy in Siyeon’s studio, I don’t know.” She yelped, and Minji figured it must have been Siyeon pinching her or something.

“Okay, I’ll figure something out, I guess. Have fun, and buy me some stuff, will you?”

“Sure thing! See you tomorrow!” She hung up.

Minji sighed. This was not going to be easy.

\---

Yoohyeon was just putting on William’s shoes when Minji arrived at the yoga studio, five minutes past two. “Okay darling, we’re going to go get some lunch with our friend Minji, alright?” she was saying to him. “And afterwards you’re going to stay with her when Mummy’s at work, okay?” The boy nodded and Yoohyeon smiled and stroked his cheek. “Come on,” she said, pulling him onto his feet and taking him by the hand. “Hi,” she said to Minji.

“Hi.” Yoohyeon was still wearing her yoga pants, but she had put on sneakers and a light jumper over her t-shirt. The weather was warm, but the spring wind could be chilly for bare arms. She was smiling as always, and Minji kind of wanted to kiss her right cheek dimple. She didn’t though, she just smiled back and crouched down to say hello to William.

“Where do you wanna go?” asked Yoohyeon when they got out on the sunny street. “Personally I would be fine with bringing a Subway to the park, but you decide.”

“That actually sounds great,” said Minji.

They got their Subways, and Yoohyeon bought a ham and cheese toast for William, also digging out a Tupperware box of sliced fruit from her bag. They found a bench with a table in the park, and William quietly ate his toast and fruit while driving his toy cars up and down the planks of the table. He seemed content doing just that, after a while crawling down onto the grass to collect some sticks off the ground, announcing that he was building a garage. Yoohyeon kept a close eye on him for a few minutes, making sure he wasn’t planning on going too far. She curled up her Subway paper, getting up to throw it out along with Minji’s, and sat down to face her.

“I’m sorry about this…” she began, but Minji cut her off.

“I already said it’s no problem,” she said, although she was still internally questioning her decisions. “I mean, you take care of him every day, I think I’ll manage a few hours.”

“The difference is he’s my son, I’m sort of obligated to take care of him.” Yoohyeon had an amused glint in her eyes, but it faded suddenly and she looked down.

“I’m sure you’re doing an amazing job.” _On you own_, Minji wanted to add, but she didn’t. She didn’t know anything about Yoohyeon and William’s family situation, but it wasn’t hard to guess.

“The truth is, his dad’s not really in the picture,” said Yoohyeon, confirming Minji’s suspicions. “When I’m at work and he’s not in pre-school, I usually have someone to take him. Mostly my mother, or my sister, or a next-door neighbour. But my sister moved to a different city recently and my mother is currently visiting her, and the neighbour who was going to help got sick, so…”

She still didn’t meet Minji’s eyes. Minji wanted to take her hand. “I’m sorry to burden you with all this,” Yoohyeon continued. “You’re not interested in my problems…”

“But I am!” blurted Minji. “I mean, it’s not a burden. I totally understand, and I want to help. You’re a hero, honestly. It can’t be easy, I mean.”

“It’s not,” said Yoohyeon. “But it’s worth it.” She looked at William fondly. “I’m just concerned he needs a second parent, that’s all. I try to do everything I can for him, but I just feel like it’s not enough.”

“I’m sure you’re the best Mummy he could ask for,” said Minji and Yoohyeon’s face lit up, making Minji more certain that she had made the right choice. “Might I… ask what happened?” she asked hesitantly. “You don’t have to tell if you don’t want to.”

“It’s fine. It’s kind of a long story, really.” She hesitated.

“I want to hear it,” said Minji. She glanced quickly at her phone. Still almost half an hour left till Yoohyeon had to get back.

“Okay, um, I moved here when I was eighteen,” she started. “I wanted to live in a big city, and my sister already lived here, so it wasn’t a problem. She obviously moved again, as I said before, but it was nice knowing someone when moving to a completely different place. Anyways, turns out I didn’t need her much, since I met Michael, William’s dad, almost right away.”

“Love at first sight?” Minji mused.

“Not exactly,” laughed Yoohyeon. “I was in love with him for four years before anything happened. He wasn’t… He wasn’t a good guy. I got that after a while.” She laughed again, melancholier this time. “He kept saying he wasn’t interested in a serious relationship, but he sure kept me hanging. It was convenient for him to have me around; I’d do almost anything for him at the time. He kept hooking up with a lot of girls, all the while saying I was the one he really cared about. He was older too, of course.” She sighed, obviously exasperated with herself.

“I was twenty-two when he finally agreed to dating for real. My sister said it was a bad idea, I said she was wrong about him; all the clichés were in place. He cheated of course, but I told myself I was the one he really loved, as he kept telling me. We had two years of a kind of happiness. He was nice and smart and funny and charming, all the right things, but he wasn’t good. Had he only had his good sides, or, at least, had his good sides dominated his bad sides, it probably would’ve worked out.”

Minji understood all too well. She also understood how hard it must be for Yoohyeon to talk about it. Her cheeks had gotten red, and she was fiddling with her sleeve. Minji, and probably everyone else, would know what it was like to be embarrassed by young mistakes.

“I got pregnant when I was twenty-four,” she continued, looking at the table again. “He wanted to leave of course. He had no interest in family life. I tried to make him stay, but he was gone the morning after I told him. I never saw him again, after that. It’s a terrible cliché, but I realised he had never been any good, and I stopped loving him almost right away.”

Minji hesitated, but made up her mind and reached across the table to take Yoohyeon’s hand. Yoohyeon startled, but didn’t pull away, so Minji squeezed her hand and offered her a comforting smile. “It wasn’t you who was in the wrong,” she said, trying to sound convincing. She knew it wouldn’t help; she could see that Yoohyeon blamed herself.

“Thanks for saying it,” Yoohyeon said, smiling back. “I was young and stupid, as we often are. I’m glad I decided to keep William, though. My mother moved to the city to help, and he’s a good kid. And he doesn’t look much like his father. Michael had sand brown hair, but luckily my dark-haired genes said fuck off to that.” She laughed. Minji laughed as well. She had never heard Yoohyeon swear, but maybe she’d had it up to here already.

“I’m glad you kept him too,” said Minji.

“To be quite honest, I’m exhausted,” Yoohyeon said unexpectedly. “I love him with my entire heart, but I have no time. For anything. I go to work, then go to pick him up wherever he is. It feels like I haven’t slept for four years. I never made a lot of friends other than at work, mostly because of Michael, but now I simply don’t have time for a social life.” She sighed. “I’m sorry for complaining to you, but you’re one of the few people I’ve actually talked to about something else than yoga and babysitting.”

Minji thought about her own meaningless life before Bora and Siyeon came to her rescue. Yoohyeon had an even more important and time-consuming job than her. She was a single mother in a big city with less of a life than Minji. And at the same time, she was the most cheerful and up-lifting person she had ever met. Minji felt almost ashamed of how little she had done with her own life, despite having every opportunity.

“It’s fine,” she said. “I like talking to you. And you can have my friends. They’re not that great, but they’ll never let you be alone.”

“You’re so great, honestly,” Yoohyeon said, giving her a bright smile. “Oh, time sure has passed. I’ll have to get back. My next class starts in just a little more than five minutes, so I better run.”

She picked William up from the ground, placing him on the bench. “Mummy’s gonna go to work now, okay? Minji is going to look after you. Be a good boy for Mummy, okay? I’ll see you later.” She kissed his cheeks and brushed off dirt off his clothes.

“I’ll come back to the studio at around seven then?” said Minji.

“Thank you so much, honestly,” said Yoohyeon, giving her a little hug before waving goodbye to William and starting on the run back to the studio.

Minji turned to William. “I guess it’s just you and me then,” she said.

\---

The day went far better than Minji had thought it would. William was suspicious to her at first, but he quickly opened up and was as happy and cheerful as his mother. Minji honestly thought he was endearing. She let him play around in the park for a little while longer after Yoohyeon left, but he soon got bored and wanted to leave. She smiled patiently at him and asked him where he wanted to go next. He thought about this for a while, obviously seriously considering what he most wanted to do. Minji packed his cars in her purse while she waited. “We can do anything you want,” she supplied. “As long as we can walk there, ‘cause I didn’t bring my car.”

He looked at her suspiciously. “Anything?” he asked.

She smiled. Yoohyeon was obviously a good mum, not always giving him what he wanted. “Yes, anything,” she said.

“Even the big water slide?” he said carefully.

“The big water slide?” Minji wondered.

“Mummy says I can’t go on the big slide cause I’m too little,” William said sadly.

“Oh, at the swimming pool, you mean!” laughed Minji. “I’ll see what I can do. We can at least go to the swimming pool if that’s what you want, and we’ll see about the water slide when we get there. Sound good?”

William thought about it, then nodded. “Water slide,” he confirmed.

And that’s how Minji ended up taking a water slide for probably the first time in her adult life. The “big slide” turned out to be not that big at all, definitely not the biggest one there, but William was happy to take it again and again, dragging Minji along every time. It was honestly a lot of fun, and Minji didn’t at all regret taking him there. She’d had to buy him a pair of swim shorts since he didn’t have any with him, but it was worth the joyful look on his face when they got in and he saw the water slide.

After Minji had stated that the water slide didn’t look too big for William, he had wanted to take it right away, and he didn’t get tired until maybe the twentieth round. Minji felt like she hadn’t had such a workout since high school, and felt grateful when she could sit down on the edge of the kids pool and watch him play with the pool toys. A woman, a few years older than Minji, sat down next to her. “Which one is yours?” she asked.

“Oh, um, that one,” said Minji clumsily and pointed at William, who was busy pouring water from a plastic bucket over his head, laughing every time. “But I’m not his mum,” she continued quickly. “Just the babysitter.”

The woman nodded in understanding. “That’s my Hannah over there,” she said. The girl she was pointing at sat next to William, now also contributing to pouring water over his head. “They’re adorable, aren’t they?”

Minji nodded, but right then the woman had to get up because her daughter Hannah had stumbled over her bucket and fallen. She started crying, and her mother leapt to the rescue. William didn’t look to bothered though, so Minji continued to let him play in peace.

They stayed there for a good two hours, involving several more rounds on the water slide, Minji swimming around the water tunnel again and again with William on her back because he wanted to look at the cool lights, and a trip to the “big pool”, which was the five meter deep pool where the diving boards where. Minji had forgotten to get William a swim ring, so she carried him around on her back, or on her hip, and it was mostly just fun. He threw a fit because she didn’t let him jump from any of the diving boards, but he got a bit happier again when she let him jump from the edge for her to catch him.

She got a few more comments about what a precious son she had, and even though she corrected them all, she still felt a bit proud. William started calling her Cool Minji, which made her feel like this had been a very successful day so far, even when he got angry with her and started crying when she decided it was time to go. “We have to go get some food,” she tried to explain when William sat on the floor in the showers and refused to move. “Then we can go get ice cream if you want. But only if you behave, okay?”

William sulked for another half a minute, then he looked at Minji and said, “Okaaaay,” in a very exasperated way, as if he was only doing this for Minji’s benefit.

Minji laughed. “Good. Now come on, we gotta get that chlorine out of your hair.”

After the swimming pool, Minji decided on going to a pizza place since Siyeon always said that everyone liked pizza. She hoped William did too. She got a simple cheese and pepperoni pizza for the both of them, and William happily ate all the pieces she sliced up for him. Afterwards they went to get ice cream as Minji had promised, and she agreed to get William two scoops instead of one “as long as you promise to eat it all.”

Minji checked the time, and they had about an hour left before Yoohyeon got off work. She remembered planning to take William to the police station, and figured it would be a nice ending for the day. “You like cars a lot, right?” she asked William. He nodded enthusiastically. “Well, you see, Minji works at the police station,” she continued.

“Cool Minji is policeman?” asked William excitedly.

“Yes, kind of,” said Minji. “Do you want to drive a police car?”

William really wanted to drive a police car. They took the Tube to the police station, and Minji got a spare key from her office to one of the work cars. She told William they unfortunately couldn’t use the sirens or the blue lights, since people might think something bad was happening, and they didn’t want that did they. William agreed, and it seemed the joy of just sitting in a “real police car” was enough for him. Minji dug out a child seat from the bottom of the trunk, and William looked excitedly out the window as she drove calmly around the few blocks surrounding the station.

They went back to the yoga studio at around seven, Minji gave William back his toy cars to play with in the front room, and ten past seven Yoohyeon emerged from the locker rooms. She was dressed in regular clothes, just light washed jeans and a blue t-shirt, but Minji thought she looked better than ever. “Hi!” said Yoohyeon cheerfully. She looked exhausted, but still happy, and she sat down next to Minji, smiling at her. She patted William’s head, but he seemed very busy with his cars, so she turned to Minji instead. “How did it go?”

“Great,” said Minji and meant it. “We went to the swimming pool.”

“I took the big water slide!” William supplied proudly.

“Wow, did you?” said Yoohyeon, smiling at him. He nodded excitedly.

“I got him some pizza for dinner, that was about an hour ago,” continued Minji.

“And we drove police car!” said William.

“Yeah, we did,” said Minji. “Just took him around the block, he really loved it.”

“I’m sure he did,” said Yoohyeon. “Thank you so, so much, seriously. You practically saved my life. No, I mean it,” she said when Minji tried to wave it away. “I don’t know how to repay you…”

“I’m just glad I could help,” said Minji. “It was just a lot of fun, it really was. He’s a great kid.”

“Yeah…” Yoohyeon smiled shyly. “At least let me take you to dinner. One night we’re both free? It’s the least I can do.”

“You don’t have to…”

“No, I want to. Honestly.”

“Alright then,” said Minji, trying not to sound too excited.

“Great! I’ll call you. Or text you, or something…” She turned to William. “Time to go home, darling. It’s almost bedtime for you.” She collected his cars off the floor and lifted him up onto her hip. He leaned tiredly against her shoulder; it had probably been a very long day for him. Minji followed them outside, and noticed they were going in opposite directions. “Say bye to Minji, darling,” Yoohyeon said to William.

“Bye, Cool Minji,” he said, yawning and waving slightly.

“Bye, see you later,” said Minji fondly. “I’ll see you then?” she said to Yoohyeon.

“Yeah!” said Yoohyeon. “I’ll text you.” She leaned in to kiss a bewildered Minji on the cheek, and then she hoisted her bag further up on her shoulder and turned to walk home. Minji stood still a good minute to process what had just happened, reaching up to carefully touch her cheek, before realising that she actually had to get home too. She automatically began on the way back to her apartment, trying not to think about how much she looked forward to Yoohyeon’s text.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been a month since I last posted, but school started again a few weeks ago so I've been busy. I will continue this story, and I'll definitely keep writing and posting, so don't worry! If I don't post for a long time it's just cause I'm very busy, but the updates will come eventually :)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There used to be a chapter here explaining why i hadn't updated, but now i'm actually posting a new chapter yay! Thanks for being patient, i'll try to post more often if i can :)
> 
> Btw just so you know, i will update this story at one point or another, so if i haven't updated in a while, it doesn't mean i've forgotten about it, it just means i haven't had the time.. Anyway thanks for reading :)

Yoohyeon had finally gotten William to bed after telling three bedtime stories and singing a lullaby, and before that again he had cried because she turned off the tv, even though he was already so tired she’d had to feed him the grapes he usually ate by himself, so she was quite ready to collapse on the couch when someone knocked on the door. She dragged herself to the small hallway and cracked the door open, before opening it wide when she saw who it was. “Hi,” she said tiredly to Yubin.

Yubin was her next-door neighbour, one of her few friends actually, and she sometimes helped with watching William when Yoohyeon worked weekends. “Hi,” said Yubin. “How are you doing?”

Yoohyeon let her in, and she toed off her shoes and followed Yoohyeon into the living room. “Tired, but good,” said Yoohyeon and sank down on the couch.

“It’s barely eight,” Yubin pointed out.

“I worked till seven,” protested Yoohyeon. “I just put William to bed.”

“I thought Handong was putting him to bed before you got home?” said Yubin. Handong was another neighbour, who Yoohyeon barely knew except she had been a friend of her older sister when she lived there, and she watched William now and then as well.

“She didn’t watch him today, she got sick,” Yoohyeon explained.

“Really?” said Yubin, suddenly very interested. “Maybe I should go see how she’s doing…” Yoohyeon giggled; Yubin had a bit of a crush on Handong, but she had hardly ever spoken to her, insisting she was out of her league (Yoohyeon secretly agreed).

“Good luck with that,” said Yoohyeon.

“Don’t tease me!” said Yubin indignantly. “I’m perfectly capable of speaking to girls, more than you anyways…” Yoohyeon thought about Minji, remembering how awkward she had felt talking to her, despite how confident she had tried to seem, and figured she wasn’t one to talk. “Anyways, who watched him then?” Yubin continued. “If you were at work all day?”

“Um…” Yoohyeon hadn’t told Yubin about Minji, despite having talked to her for weeks already, and Yubin usually knew everything going on in her life. “A friend. Her name is Minji,” she said eventually.

Yubin tucked a strand of her short hair behind her ear and narrowed her eyes at her. “Who is that?” she asked suspiciously. “I’ve never heard of a friend named Minji.”

Yoohyeon scoffed. “Okay? I don’t know all of your friends either.”

“Tell me about her then!” said Yubin excitedly. “Since you’re being this avoidant, she must be important to you. Oh, is she your girlfriend? How did you meet?”

“Stop being so pushy!” Yoohyeon complained. “She’s not my girlfriend. I met her at the studio, she takes one of my classes, and we talked a bit.”

“Talked a bit? You must know her pretty well if you let her watch your son, _alone_, _all day_.”

“I mean, I suppose I know her quite well…” Yoohyeon hesitated. She knew Yubin would drag the truth from her one way or another. Yoohyeon had, after all, known about Yubin’s crush on Handong for ages, but this was different, because Yoohyeon definitely didn’t have a crush on Minji. Except… she totally did. Damn it.

“Alright, if you want to play that game,” said Yubin. “I guess I should just go then, since it’s your bedtime already…”

“No!” said Yoohyeon quickly. “I want company, please…?”

Yubin smiled wickedly. “If you tell me about your girlfriend,” she said.

“She’s not—” Yoohyeon began, but figured it was no use. The truth was that she wanted nothing more than to talk about Minji all night, and if Yubin was willing to listen, even just to tease her, she was definitely going to take the opportunity. “Alright, but she’s actually not my girlfriend.”

Yubin just looked at her. “You mean, not yet,” she said, deadpan.

Yoohyeon sighed. “Yes, yes, that’s what I mean!” she said, cracking. “Ugh, I just like her so much! She’s so amazing, you have no idea! We literally just started talking after one of my classes — I love talking to her by the way, it’s so great — and we’ve been talking for weeks! She’s so beautiful, and smart — she’s a detective! — and she’s so great with William, I’m just so…”

“In love?” Yubin supplied.

“No!” Yoohyeon exclaimed. “I mean, not in _love_ per se, more like… Fine, in love then, idiot, but that’s not the point. I think… I think she might like me too.” She sighed, slumping down on Yubin’s t-shirt-clad shoulder, wrapping her arms around her and being way closer than she knew Yubin preferred.

“Well, that’s good, isn’t it?” Yubin said, struggling to free herself from Yoohyeon’s grip. “You’re so clingy, jeez.”

“Sorry,” Yoohyeon said, letting go of Yubin and falling back on the other side of the couch instead. “I mean, yeah, but how do I know? I mean, she could just be really nice, right? And I don’t even know if she likes girls, ugh why is this so complicated.”

“That shouldn’t be too hard to find out,” Yubin said, and before Yoohyeon could say anything, she already had her phone open. “What’s her name again?” she asked, tucking a red strand of her behind her ear.

“Um, why?” Yoohyeon sat up, suspicious.

“We’ll just stalk her Instagram, it’ll be easy, come here.”

“No!” Yoohyeon protested. “I don’t wanna stalk anyone…”

“Really?” said Yubin. “Don’t worry, everyone does it.”

“Mhm, so do you stalk Handong a lot, then?”

Yubin curled her lower lip shyly. “No,” she said. “That’s not the point anyways…” She typed in Minji’s name in the search bar, quickly finding an account which could be hers. “Is this her? Wow, I get why you like her, she’s hot.”

Yoohyeon blushed. “Yeah, it’s her, and I don’t like her because she’s _hot_.”

“Right, you like her for her personality,” Yubin said indifferently. She scrolled through the few posts Minji had on her account, and Yoohyeon found herself staring blankly at the photos showing her face. There were a few of those, some featuring two other girls Yoohyeon recognised from her classes, and a few pictures of a grey cat with green eyes. “Aww, she has a cat!” Yubin said.

“Yeah…” Yoohyeon would like a dog herself, but she didn’t want another living being to take care of at the moment. Of course, if Minji had a cat, it only made her love cats more, too. “What do you think?”

“Hm, she might be gay,” Yubin said. “These two definitely are.” She was looking at a photo of Minji and the two other girls, tagged as Bora and Siyeon, and she tapped at the tags to scroll through their accounts as well. “Seems they are together… Anyways, your girl… I’m not too sure, there’s nothing indicating either or… Straight girls can have cats, I suppose…” She put her phone down. “And she hasn’t said anything that could mean she’s interested in you?” she asked, curling her legs under herself and leaning on the opposite armrest of the couch.

“I mean, she agreed to go to dinner with me,” Yoohyeon said, shrugging. “But that doesn’t have to mean—”

“What?!” Yubin exclaimed, sitting up abruptly. “Why didn’t you just say that at once? Oh my god, she totally likes you too!”

“You think so?” Yoohyeon said hesitantly.

“Of course, dumbass!” Yubin said. “Why would she go out with you if she didn’t like you?”

Yoohyeon thought about it. “I guess… But what if she just wants to go out as friends?”

“Ugh, why do I bother,” said Yubin and sighed, burying her head in her hands exasperatedly. “Lesbians are so oblivious, they never understand when someone likes them, completely hopeless, really.”

“Says you!” Yoohyeon argued weakly. “Like you would ever get it if Handong liked you…”

“Okay, we’re talking about your problem here,” Yubin deadpanned. “So how did it happen? How on earth did you manage to ask her out in the first place, if you didn’t even think she liked you?”

“Well, she had watched William all day, and she didn’t want anything for it, and I said, well at least let me take you to dinner, and she said yes, and I said I’d text her, and that was it!”

“Have you texted her then?”

“No! I can’t just text her right away, wouldn’t it be weird?”

Yubin shrugged. “I guess,” she said. “Don’t you want to though?”

“No,” Yoohyeon mumbled.

“Booooring,” Yubin drawled. “Maybe I’ll just head home after all… If you’re going to be so boring…” She got up, stretching her arms over her head.

“Stop threatening me with loneliness!” Yoohyeon said indignantly. “Besides, I wouldn’t even know how to start, it’s not like I plan to go out with her today!”

“Alright,” was all Yubin said. She picked up her jacket from the chair she had left it on.

“Ugh, fine!” said Yoohyeon. “I can text her, but then you’re going to talk to Handong afterwards!”

Yubin stared at her. “Fine,” she said, shrugging as if it didn’t matter to her at all. “I’m perfectly capable of talking to Handong. Matter of fact, I was going to check in on her anyway. Just so you know.”

“I know, you told me,” Yoohyeon said. “I guess it’s not a problem then.”

“Not at all,” Yubin said, putting her jacket down again. “So? What’re you going to write her?”

“I don’t know, you have to help me,” Yoohyeon said, scrolling through her contacts to find Minji’s number.

“Useless lesbians, can’t do anything by themselves,” Yubin laughed, shaking her head. As if she was any better.

“I’m not even a lesbian,” Yoohyeon muttered, but Yubin ignored it.

“Alright, just start simple,” Yubin said, walking over to Yoohyeon and hovering over her shoulder. “Casual, but still indicating that you like her, and that you want to see her again.”

“I’ll see her again next week anyway, for classes” Yoohyeon said nervously.

“Yes, I know, but like you want to see her _outside_ _of_ classes,” Yubin said impatiently.

“Okay,” Yoohyeon said. “How about…” She hesitantly typed a few words into the message bar. It said: “Hi, it’s Yoohyeon! Thanks again for taking care of William, he really loved you! Looking forward to having dinner, maybe sometime next week?”

“Hm, that’s actually pretty good,” said Yubin, narrowing her eyes at the screen to look for anything that needed to be fixed. “I’d say it’s casual enough…”

“See, I can talk to girls!” Yoohyeon said happily. “Should I just send it?” Her thumb hovered over the send button cautiously.

“Yeah, why not?” Yubin said. “What’s the worst that could happen, right?”

“Yeah,” Yoohyeon said, pressing send before she could change her mind. Just then did she notice she had been holding her breath, and she felt her heart pounding in her ears. “You sure this was a good idea?” she asked Yubin.

“Of course,” said Yubin. “You were gonna text her sometime anyway, might as well do it when you have my godly advice at hand.”

“Right,” Yoohyeon scoffed, still staring intently at the screen.

“Are you gonna stare at that till she replies? Might take a while,” Yubin said. “If she’s as slow as you, anyway.”

“I literally texted her the same day I said I would,” Yoohyeon deadpanned. “Ugh, do you think she’ll think I’m totally needy?” she added with afterthought.

“Yep,” Yubin shrugged. “But who cares. You two obviously needed a push, if you’ve talked for weeks and nothing’s even happened yet. And besides, you _are_ needy,” she added. “She might as well get used to it.” Yoohyeon sighed annoyedly. “And clingy,” Yubin continued, ignoring her. “I mean, you literally texted her because you didn’t want me to leave you alone, and you keep trying to cuddle me all the time, and I am the only friend you have except for you kid, so you’re constantly craving social contact…”

“Ugh, you’re right,” Yoohyeon said. “It’s terrible, isn’t it?”

Yubin just shrugged. “Nah, it’s alright,” she said. “It’s endearing, really, if you don’t have so much…”

“Touch-phobia?”

“Yeah.”

Yoohyeon started pacing back and forth. “When do you think she’ll reply?”

“No idea. Not before she’s read it, at least,” Yubin reasoned. “You shouldn’t start stressing before that.”

“Right,” Yoohyeon said, staring at the little writing beneath the text which said “Delivered”. Not “Read”. Alright.

“Stop overthinking,” Yubin said, reaching over to pluck Yoohyeon’s phone out of her hand, locking it and putting it in her back pocket despite her protests. “It won’t help.”

“Okay,” Yoohyeon said, eyeing and opportunity. “Weren’t you going to see Handong?” she said, changing the subject.

“I was, actually,” Yubin said, very confidently. “I might just go right now.”

“Good,” Yoohyeon said. “I’ll come with you then.”

“Pfft, you can’t do that,” Yubin said, waving the suggestion away. “you have to watch William anyway, you can’t just leave him,” she quickly added.

“He’ll be fine, it’s just a couple of minutes, and it’s just down the hall. I have the monitor anyway,” she said, picking up the device from the coffee table. Only a very soft sound of breathing could be heard from it. “See? He’s asleep.”

“Ugh, fine,” Yubin said. “But don’t embarrass me, okay?”

“Yes, Miss Perfect Image,” Yoohyeon giggled, at which Yubin glared. “I won’t ruin your cold and badass image, don’t worry.”

She looked in on William to be sure, and then they both put on their shoes and shuffled out in the hall, walking to the left toward Handong’s door. “Maybe I should have brought something, I mean, she’s sick and all…” Yubin muttered.

“Your bright presence alone will be enough to cheer her up, I’m sure,” said Yoohyeon brightly, relieved that it was her friend’s turn to be teased now.

Yubin hesitated at the door, brushing a hand through her hair and straightening her shirt. She brushed some imaginary dust off her jeans, and just before Yoohyeon was about to do it herself, she reached up to knock. They could hear some shuffling, and then the door opened carefully. A girl with soft blonde hair stood behind it, and she looked at them with big shiny eyes for a short second, before saying: “Hi,” softly. Her voice was deeper than usual from her cold, and she wasn’t wearing any makeup, which somehow made her prettier.

“Um, hi,” Yubin said awkwardly.

“We just wanted to see how you were doing, since you’re sick,” Yoohyeon supplied.

“Oh, that’s nice of you,” Handong said, not really looking at Yubin. Yoohyeon wanted to roll her eyes at how oblivious they both were. “You can come in if you want, but it’s kind of a mess…”

“Don’t worry about it,” Yoohyeon said. “I’m sure it’s fine.”

Handong opened the door wider for them to walk in, and, as Yoohyeon suspected, her apartment wasn’t a mess at all. She hadn’t visited Handong many times, but her apartment always looked spotless. It was super stylish, with furniture that looked expensive even though it probably wasn’t, just the right amount of decorative objects and actual real green plants, plus fancy modern paintings on the soft coloured walls. The girl truly had an eye for interior design, at least more than Yoohyeon, who’s apartment was more filled with toys and strewn-around clothes than anything else, and Yubin, who’s walls were mostly covered by music posters.

Handong was also very fashionable all the time, and this was no exception: despite being sick, she looked great in her soft white sweater and fluffy beige pants. The only sign that something was different, was the blankets in a tangle on the couch, and the box of Kleenex on the coffee table. “You guys want some tea?” she asked. “I was just making some.”

“I’ll make it!” Yoohyeon said brightly. “You just go and wrap yourself in those blankets, I’ll fix it, don’t worry.”

Handong looked slightly baffled, but agreed and walked back to the living room, while Yoohyeon made her way to the small kitchen. She gave Yubin a slight nudge when she passed her, nodding at Handong and shoving her lightly toward the couch. She received a glare in return, but she just smiled and watched Yubin sit down on the opposite side of the couch from Handong, looking more nervous than she had ever seen her, despite her apparent confidence back in her own apartment.

When she had made the tea and carried it carefully on a small tray with flower-patterns on it back to the living room, Yubin had luckily gotten slightly over her social awkwardness, and was now softly talking to Handong. Handong just laughed at something she had said, and Yubin was smiling and had those cute little crinkles by her eyes. “Here,” Yoohyeon said, putting down the tea, smiling at Yubin, who just narrowed her eyes in return. “I hope you’re feeling a bit better.”

“I am, thank you,” said Handong, taking one of the cups from the tray, a green one with a golden rim and handle. “We were just talking about this tv show we both love, we even have the same favourite character.” She smiled at Yubin over the rim of her tea cup.

“Oh, great,” Yoohyeon said. She sat down in a velvet chair, taking a sip from her own tea. Luckily it didn’t taste so bad. She didn’t make tea very often by herself. She reached into her jean pocket to check the time on her phone, only to realise Yubin still had it. “I can’t stay so long, I have to get back to William soon,” she said.

“Of course,” Handong said. “How is he? I hope it worked out alright, I’m sorry I couldn’t watch him after all.”

“Don’t worry about it, it worked out fine,” Yoohyeon assured. Then, suddenly, the familiar sound of her text notification went off, and she jumped a bit. She had almost forgotten about Minji entirely.

“Shouldn’t you check that?” Handong asked, touching Yubin’s shoulder lightly. Yubin didn’t seem to mind that much, actually.

“Um…” she said.

“That’s mine,” Yoohyeon said. “Yubin just kept it for me…”

“Ah, yes,” Yubin said, handing Yoohyeon her phone.

It was, as she had hoped (or feared?), a text from Minji.

“Was it something important?” Handong asked kindly. “You just look a little worried.”

“No, I was just waiting for a text from a – um – friend—” She coughed a bit, almost choking on her tea. “I’ll check it later, it’s fine.” She got a look from Yubin, which she ignored. She was dying to see what Minji had replied, but at the same time, she had come here to be with Handong, who was sick, and she couldn’t freak out now. Also, she wanted to stay for a few more minutes to make sure Yubin and Handong could keep up the good tone and actually get to know each other a bit, which was originally the purpose of this visit anyway. “So what show were you guys talking about again?” she asked cheerfully.

“Oh, right!” said Handong, still groggily, but more brightly than earlier. “It’s this show on Netflix, I started watching it a few months ago, and I just love it from the start, the characters and the plot and everything is so good…” She started explaining everything to Yoohyeon, and Yoohyeon thought that maybe she wasn’t completely out of Yubin’s league. Maybe these nerds could actually work something out. Yubin was at least smiling more than ever, her cold and charismatic image quickly dying, but she didn’t seem to care.

Yoohyeon left when she had finished her tea, explaining that she should get back to William. They both looked a little stressed when she left, but she just laughed and told Handong that she was in good hands and that Yubin could at least make instant noodles if they were going to eat something. Handong laughed as well, and Yoohyeon hoped Yubin wouldn’t be too awkward.

The first thing she did as she got back was poke her head into William’s room, but he was still sleeping soundly. She knew he would be, considering she had clutched the monitor tightly in her hand from the moment she stepped out the front door, but she had still worried a bit. Then she sat on the couch and stared at her phone for a whole minute, before opening it to check what Minji had replied. She was probably way more stressed about this than she should be, but that reasoning didn’t stop her heart from pounding. She hesitantly unlocked her phone, opening the message app, staring at the reply from Minji, reading it over and over until she finally grasped the content of it.

It said: “It was no problem at all, William is adorable! Tell him I look forward to seeing him again :D Next week sounds good, maybe Tuesday if it works for you?”

Oh god. Tuesday. She was going to see Minji again on _Tuesday. _That was _three days_ from now. She fought the urge to squeal out loud, instead falling back on the couch, clutching her phone to her chest. She felt like a teenager, but she didn’t care one bit, beginning to type out a reply. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Btw Yubin doesn't actually have a phobia for being touched, she just doesn't like it a lot when people cling to her lol


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello. Back with a new chapter. It's been like half a year lmao, sorry about that, but i just didnt have the energy to write anything before now honestly. With school and covid and a lot of other stuff, i didnt really make time to write anything. But i havent abandoned this story! I know i'm really bad at updating regularly, but i'll always update eventually! So if i don't update for a while, i'll do it sooner or later, i'm not planning on dropping this story at any point. So here's finally another chapter, thanks for being patient with me :)
> 
> btw this is probably the fluffiest chapter yet, you've been warned

It was Monday. Tuesday was tomorrow. Minji was doing office hours and couldn’t concentrate at all. She had spent all of Sunday with Bora and Siyeon, gushing over how she was going to meet Yoohyeon, and they had both been of very little help. Bora kept commenting on how she finally got around to asking her out, to which Minji replied that it was Yoohyeon who had asked her, and it wasn’t even a date. Siyeon was mixing drinks again and being very unhelpful by coming with more colourful reply suggestions every time Minji got a text from Yoohyeon. Which was quite often.

After breaking the ice with the first couple of texts, talking to Yoohyeon was easy as breathing. It was just like how they talked after the yoga classes, and they could talk about everything. Just in those couple of days they had been texted, Minji found that they had so much in common, and it was quite honestly liberating. Siyeon and Bora were great friends, but she often felt like they were on a completely different wavelength. And not just that, she had also always admired the great relationship they had, always seeming like they had known each other for a lifetime and like they were just meant to be. Maybe Minji had now started dreaming of having the same with Yoohyeon. Just maybe.

Sunday wasn’t all bad advice and shady drinks. They brought back a lot of souvenirs from Harry Potter World, giggling when handing Minji several pink perfume bottles that said “Love Potion” on the label. Minji wasn’t even mad, she just rolled her eyes, agreeing that she might actually need it. Her thoughts kept constantly floating towards Yoohyeon, something both Bora and Siyeon teased her for, especially because she started smiling randomly when she remembered something Yoohyeon had texted her.

Her thoughts were currently a preoccupied as they had been on Sunday, and she constantly ignored her computer screen in favour of checking her phone every two minutes. “Minji!” Bora’s sharp voice pulled her from her thoughts. “Hm?” said Minji absently.

“It’s almost ten past five,” Bora said. “Aren’t you going home?”

Minji’s eyes flickered to the top of her screen, looking at the time. Work had indeed ended a few minutes ago already. “Yes, sure,” she replied, reaching around her desk to tidy a bit before she left.

“I’ll join you at your place, hm?” said Bora, putting on her jacket. “You know, to help you get ready.”

Minji panicked for a brief second. “Get ready for what?” she asked distressed, turning sharply to look questioningly at Bora. “The date’s not till tomorrow.”

“Yes, I know,” Bora said, and Minji sighed with relief. “I’m just saying, the date’s at seven, right? And you get off at five. Two hours is not a lot of time if you’re going to spend one and a half of them trying to decide on a top. So it’s better if we figure everything out today,” she explained.

Minji nodded. “Yeah, you’re right,” she said. “Let’s go then.”

They went to Minji’s apartment, and Bora went straight for her closet and started looking through her clothes. “Do you want to eat something first?” called Minji from the kitchen. “I can make dinner.”

“Cool,” Bora called back from the closet. “I’ll text Siyeon, she’ll want to help pick your outfit.” Minji trusted Bora’s fashion sense, but she wasn’t so sure about Siyeon’s, as she mostly wore jeans and t-shirts stained with paint, though she couldn’t argue with Bora. She briefly wondered if Siyeon had worn paint-stained jeans on her first date with Bora.

Siyeon showed up ten minutes later, wearing a black pin-striped suit with a t-shirt underneath, probably one of her working suits, as it looked very worn out and had holes in some places. She had yellow paint in her face, but somehow she looked really good. “You dyed your hair,” Minji noticed. Siyeon’s hair was always colourful, and it had recently been pink and orange, but now she had chosen a bright electric blue, with black underneath that started just behind her ears. It looked really cool. Minji’s hair was continuously a plain black; she had never dyed it. She sometimes wanted to be like Siyeon and dye her hair in a billion different colours, but she didn’t think she dared.

“Yes!” Siyeon said, pleased. “Like it?”

“Of course,” Minji said. “You look great.”

“Thanks. What’re you making?” Siyeon asked, poking her nose into the pan Minji was busy with.

“Pasta,” Minji replied.

“What kind?”

“Carbonara.”

“Yum,” Siyeon said happily.

Bora reappeared from Minji’s closet, and came up behind Siyeon to wrap her arms around her waist and bury her face in her hair. “Hey,” she said. “You smell like dye.”

“I know,” Siyeon said, giggling. Bora kissed her cheek, then turned to Minji. “All your clothes are boring,” she said, deadpan. “That is, they're not exactly boring, they're just really basic. Which is fine, because I guess that is your style anyways. Don’t worry, we’ll make you look great!” Bora smiled enthusiastically.

“Great,” Minji said, stirring the sauce. “I'm sure you will.”

They ate all Minji’s pasta, which was “super good!” by the way, according to Bora, and her cooking skills were “total girlfriend material!” At least one part of her was girlfriend material, Minji thought, and somehow Bora must have read her thoughts, because she started talking about how cooking wasn’t Minji’s only attractive trait. “I mean, Yoohyeon obviously likes you, and she haven’t even tried your cooking yet!” Bora said through a mouthful. “You’re really nice, and responsible, and helpful, and a good friend, and really smart! And also hot,” she concluded. Siyeon nodded solemnly next to her. “Definitely,” she agreed.

Minji just looked at them defeatedly. “Er, thanks,” she said awkwardly. “I guess I'm not a total disaster then. Did you even figure out what I'm supposed to wear?”

Bora lit up. “Yes!” she said, abandoning her almost empty plate, dragging Minji from her chair. Siyeon looked torn between finishing her food and joining them, but she eventually came through the bedroom door, flinging herself on Minji’s bed. “Hey!” Bora exclaimed annoyed, shooing Siyeon away from the bed, which, usually well made, was currently covered in Minji’s clothes. “You're ruining my system!”

“Sorry,” Siyeon sighed, settling on the floor instead.

“As I was saying,” Bora said. “I found a few outfits, the ones on the left are the ones I like best, on the right the ones that aren’t so good.” She straightened the clothes Siyeon had laid on. “What do you think?” she asked Minji.

“I like this one.” Minji pointed to one of the outfits on the left of the bed.

“Great! Try it one,” Bora urged.

“I think it fits, they're kind of my clothes,” Minji said, rolling her eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, I know, but I want to see my beautiful composition on a real-life model!” Bora insisted.

“I'm hardly a model,” Minji muttered, but changed into the outfit anyway. It was a pair of light blue jeans, some of Minji’s nicer ones actually, and a pink blouse she hadn’t worn in ages. Bora had really gone through the deepest depths of her closet. She had even found a rare pair of heels in there somewhere. Minji almost never wore heels since they were impractical, but Bora insisted she would look amazing.

“Wow," Siyeon whispered from the floor. “You look really pretty.”

“Thanks,” Bora said, pleased. “I’ll take that compliment, since I put together the outfit. But you really look great. I can come by tomorrow and do your hair and makeup if you want?”

“It’s a date, not a wedding," Minji said, pretending to be annoyed. “But I mean, if you insist.”

“I do,” Bora said firmly.

Minji looked at her reflection in the mirror. It really was a good outfit. Hopefully Yoohyeon thought so as well.

\---

It was Tuesday. Yoohyeon had been freaking out all day. She had some morning classes, but after that she was free to freak out for the rest of the day. Which is what she was doing right now. “It’s just a date dude, chill,” Yubin said. She was looking at her phone, not really paying attention to Yoohyeon at all.

“Really?” Yoohyeon said, indignant, but out of breath from all her pacing. “Would you be saying that if it was you who were going on a date with Handong?”

Yubin peaked at her over her phone. “Let’s be realistic,” she said. “That would never happen.”

“Mhm,” Yoohyeon said, stumbling over a fold in the carpet, almost crashing into William who was peacefully playing on the floor. She sighed and decided that sitting down might be best. “She’s coming over soon, by the way,” she added, glancing at Yubin on the other side of the couch to look for a reaction.

“Who?” was all Yubin said.

“Handong,” Yoohyeon said. “Who else?”

Yubin almost dropped her phone on her face. “Wait, what? Why?” she inquired, suddenly interested.

“She’s helping me get ready. And she’s watching William for me.”

“I thought I was helping you get ready?”

“You're not really helping.”

“Fair.” Yubin finally got up from the couch, stretching like a cat. Handong liked cats, Yoohyeon thought, giggling internally.

Handong was at the door moments later. “Thank god,” Yubin said when Yoohyeon got up to answer, since Yoohyeon had begun to tap her feet when she couldn’t pace anymore. It drove Yubin crazy.

“Hi," Handong said. She wasn’t sick anymore, and was wearing jeans and a cardigan, her blonde hair in a short low ponytail. She brushed her bangs from her face, and peered around Yoohyeon to smile to Yubin in greeting. Yubin gave her a peace sign in return, and Yoohyeon just smiled and shook her head. She wondered how long it would take before she was the one helping those two get ready for a date with each other. Far too long, probably.

“How are you?” Yoohyeon asked Handong.

“Good, thanks,” Handong said. “Back to fabulous.” She smiled.

“I can tell,” Yoohyeon grinned.

“Your turn then,” Handong said. “To be fabulous. I’ll help you, don’t worry.” She could probably read Yoohyeon’s stress on her face.

“I really need it,” Yoohyeon said. “Coming, Yubin?” She turned around, finding Yubin once again stretched out on the couch.

“I thought I wasn’t helpful,” Yubin said, yawning.

“You're not,” Yoohyeon laughed. “But I could use your charm and positivity, come on.”

“Ugh, whatever,” Yubin said, but she got up anyway, and found herself a new spot on Yoohyeon’s bed as Yoohyeon and Handong started looking through her clothes.

Handong found a white long-sleeved top and gave it to Yoohyeon, who put it on. “It looks really good with your hair,” Handong said stated. Yoohyeon’s hair was currently a light blonde, almost silvery, with some of her dark brown roots showing. It had been really long, reaching past her elbows, but she had recently cut it to a little past her shoulders, not quite as short as Handong’s, but they both had the same bangs. “It’s plain, but very pretty. Not too dramatic. Not too formal, or too casual. What do you think?”

Yoohyeon looked in the mirror. “I like it,” she said. “Should I just wear these jeans?”

“I think it looks fine,” Yubin commented, but Handong glared at her. “No, it does not,” she insisted. “They're too boring. Hang on, I’ll find something." She turned back to the closet. “Don’t you have any skirts?”

“Not a lot,” Yoohyeon said. “I don’t wear skirts a lot.”

“You should,” Handong said. “Here.” She handed Yoohyeon a plain black skirt with silver buttons on the front. It clung to her legs when she put it on, and while she was used to wearing yoga pants and other clothes than showed off her figure, she still felt a bit self-conscious. “It looks great,” Handong insisted.

“Um, what shoes should I wear?” Yoohyeon asked.

“I guess sneakers would be fine, if you have some that aren’t all dirty and worn out,” Handong said. “But it would be best if you had some heels or something…” She went back to Yoohyeon’s closet to look for shoes.

“I haven’t really worn heels in ages…” Yoohyeon commented, but Handong didn’t seem to hear her.

“Yeah me neither,” Yubin said from the bed.

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Handong said with a tiny smile in Yubin’s direction, “but it’s not you we’re dressing up.” She pulled some shoes out of a cardboard box that looked like it had lived through a hurricane. “These are fine.”

“I think I wore those to prom,” Yoohyeon laughed, but she put them on all the same.

“You actually don’t look so bad,” Yubin said, looking at Yoohyeon upside down from where she laid with her head at the foot of the bed.

“Let me just fix your hair as well,” Handong said, and steered Yoohyeon to the mirror and sat her down in front of it. “Do you have a curling iron?” Handong asked, and Yoohyeon shook her head. “I’ll just pop over to my place to get mine.” Handong left, and Yoohyeon moved closer to the door so she could better see William. She had left him in the living room with his toys, but she could see him through the open bedroom door so she wasn’t worried.

“I’ll get some snacks,” Yubin said, getting up. “This could take a while, after all.”

“Hm, I don’t have that much of a while, honestly,” Yoohyeon muttered, looking at her phone. The locked screen read 5:57 PM. She was meeting Minji at seven, and figured she would leave at a quarter to. Plenty of time. She also kept checking to see if Minji texted her. They had texted some over the past few days, but not really today… She was probably busy. Yoohyeon briefly wondered if Minji was as stressed as she was, and then panicked for a few seconds because what if Minji didn’t think of this as a date? Yubin had said that it definitely was a date, and that Minji probably thought so too, but Yoohyeon was still worried. There was always the chance that Minji only liked her as a friend, and that she thought of this as a friendly dinner to repay a favour, but Yubin had insisted that it was obvious that this was a date. Yoohyeon just had to believe her.

She didn’t have more than a minute to stress about this though, because Handong returned with the iron and dragged Yoohyeon back in front of the mirror. “Do you go on a lot of dates?” Yoohyeon asked as Handong curled her hair into pretty waves.

“Now and then. Why?”

“I’m not really sure how to go about it. Like, what do I talk about?”

“Haven’t you been talking to this girl for weeks? Just talk like you normally do, you’ll be fine,” Handong said reassuringly.

“Yeah, but aren’t there like, rules? For what you do on a date,” Yoohyeon asked.

“I guess?” Handong said. “But don’t worry about some stupid social rules, just be yourself. Usually I’d say split the bill, but you said something about thanking her for looking after William? So that’s your call I guess.”

“Yeah,” Yoohyeon said. Then was quiet for a while, thinking. “Can I kiss her?” she eventually asked.

“If you want,” Handong said, putting down the iron after finishing the last curl. She started brushing through it to make it look more natural. “If it seems right, I guess.”

“Okay.” Yoohyeon sat still for a while longer, letting Handong apply some makeup on her, and put on the silver earrings Handong gave her afterwards.

“Perfect,” Handong announced. “You're ready.”

“Thanks a lot,” Yoohyeon said, examining herself in the mirror. She actually looked kind of amazing. _Confidence_, she told herself. _You're gonna need it._

\---

Quarter to seven, after stressing about for half an hour and somehow managing to give William his supper and put him to bed at the same time, Yoohyeon was out the door. She thanked Handong again, and said goodbye to Yubin, who was still there. Apparently those two would watch William together. Good to have company, Handong had said, and Yubin had muttered something about not having to be alone _all_ the time. Yoohyeon had just smiled, not taking the time to tease them about it, and left.

She arrived at the restaurant they had agreed on three minutes before seven. It wasn’t that cold, it had been a warm spring day, but Yoohyeon decided to wait inside. Maybe Minji had arrived already, and Yoohyeon didn’t want to make her wait. The restaurant wasn’t that big; Yoohyeon scanned it quickly and found that Minji wasn’t there yet, so she decided to find a table. A waitress came up to her and Yoohyeon asked for a table for two, and the waitress took her to a table by a small window. It was a nice table, with a cute little flower in a tiny vase on a white lace tablecloth. Yoohyeon smiled at the little flower, setting her purse down on the corner of the table.

The door of the restaurant opened, and she automatically looked up to see if it was Minji, and as it happened, it was. It was Minji, and she looked absolutely breath-taking. At least that was how Yoohyeon saw her, but she couldn’t imagine that anyone would find this woman anything but stunning. She was wearing a pink blouse and blue jeans, a small bag in her hand, and heels on her feet. Her black hair was flowing down her back in long waves, and she was tucking it behind her ear as she looked around the room. Yoohyeon waved at her, smiling brightly, and Minji smiled just as brightly back when she noticed her.

“Hi!" she said when she got to the table.

“Hi,” Yoohyeon said, already giddy inside. She decided to be a gentlewoman and pulled out Minji’s chair for her, to which Minji laughed, and Yoohyeon fell even more in love right then. “You look…” Yoohyeon struggled between wanting to express everything she felt, and not being too enthusiastic, and settled on the latter. “Great. You look great.”

“Thanks." Minji blushed. “You too.”

The same waitress as before arrived with two menus. “Thanks,” Yoohyeon said politely and accepted hers. She was the one who had suggested the restaurant, finding it only appropriate when she had suggested the dinner in the first place, and she had picked it because she found it had something for everyone. She didn’t know what Minji liked, and didn’t want to make her uncomfortable by taking her somewhere she wouldn’t find anything to eat. She knew what that was like, and it wasn’t any fun.

“They seem to have everything here,” Minji commented as she looked through the menu.

“They kind of do,” Yoohyeon said. “See anything you like?”

“Oh, definitely,” Minji said, looking directly at Yoohyeon, and laughed when Yoohyeon flushed at the flirty comment. “Sorry, you just looked so shocked.”

“It just didn’t seem like something you would say,” Yoohyeon shrugged.

“Hm you're right, I don’t know where this newfound confidence comes from. It must be the air in here,” Minji said, averting her eyes shyly back to the menu. “But yes, I think I found something I’d like to try. From the menu that is.”

“Great! I’m ready too, should we just order then?” Minji nodded, and Yoohyeon got the attention of the waitress.

\---

Minji didn’t think she had enjoyed herself this much in ages. She had been on dates before, but none of them had been as much fun as this. Their conversation went just as comfortably as it used to at the yoga and in the texts, but now it was even better, since they didn’t have to hurry off to work or other things. They could just talk and laugh in peace. Minji barely noticed what she ate, except that it was good, and she told Yoohyeon that she had picked a good place indeed. The waitress came back and asked if they wanted dessert, and they both ordered something, as they wanted to stay longer.

The nervousness Minji had felt before the date had vanished right away when she saw Yoohyeon at the table. She had blamed her flirty comments on random newfound confidence, but the truth was that she honestly felt completely comfortable with Yoohyeon, and she had a feeling Yoohyeon felt the same about her. They had both been a bit awkward when they first started talking, Yoohyeon being cheerful and forthcoming all the time, but not overly confident at all. Their texts were kind of flirty at both ends, and it was like talking to a good friend, except none of them took the flirting to the extreme and made indecent comments such as a platonic friend probably would. When Minji texted with Bora, Bora almost always made crude jokes, which was fine because it was just a joke and there was nothing between them. Also because Minji usually ended the conversation right away when Bora said those things, and Bora made fun of her for it. She joked with Yoohyeon as well, but it was different. Talking to her was so easy; no part was stronger than the other. As if they were equals.

Now Minji only hoped that Yoohyeon reciprocated her romantic feelings as well, because she was starting to feel like they were meant to be.

Yoohyeon was scraping her plate clean with her spoon, trying to get the last crumbs from her apple cake, and Minji felt content just watching her. She was smiling at her plate, laughing at her own joke that she just told. Her earrings twinkled in the dim light of the restaurant as she moved, but their shine faded compared to the brilliance of her smiling eyes. “Your eyes are so beautiful,” Minji said, without thinking, but she didn’t regret it when Yoohyeon’s eyes lit up even more.

“Thanks,” Yoohyeon said, blushing, but smiling, and her eyes crinkled in that pretty way they always did when she smiled extra widely. “Yours too. And I … love your laughter. Especially when you laugh at something I said.” She ducked her head after saying it, brushing her hair from her face and leaning her chin on her hand.

“Well, you're quite funny,” Minji smiled, and she meant it too. She would laugh at everything Yoohyeon said if that made her happy.

\---

Yoohyeon wanted to pay. She insisted she should, since Minji had helped her so much the other day, and it was the least she could do. Minji wanted to argue, but decided it would be rude since Yoohyeon seemed to really want to. The restaurant wasn’t a really expensive one anyway, so it was alright. She argued a bit though, just for the sake of it, and insisted on paying next time. _Next time_. Minji really hoped there would be a next time.

“I, um, I’m really happy we did this,” she said, when they stood outside of the restaurant to say goodbye. They were headed in different directions, and Minji was almost glad, since she would have wanted to walk Yoohyeon home if not. And then she might not have been able to say goodbye at all. “That is, I’m glad you asked. And, well, that I said yes. I had a great time.”

“Me too,” Yoohyeon said, smiling her crinkled eye smile. “It was wonderful. You were … yeah.”

“Thanks! By the way. For paying, and suggesting it and all.” Minji couldn’t seem to find the perfect words to conclude the perfect evening.

“It was the least I could do,” Yoohyeon said again. “You did help me out a lot, saved my day, honestly.”

“Yes, well. I hope it wasn’t just because of that,” Minji said, trying to subtly communicate her meaning without sounding too awkward. “I mean, I hope this wasn’t just to say thank you.”

“Of course not!” Yoohyeon said. “I mean, it was that, but also because I wanted to go out with you…”

“I wanted that too," Minji said. “And it was perfect, honestly.”

“Great.” Yoohyeon sounded relieved. “I agree. To be honest, I wasn’t completely sure if this was a date or not. That’s what I wanted it to be, but I didn’t know if I made it clear. It would be really awkward if I didn’t, you know, and you thought it wasn’t a date, especially if that’s what you were thinking right now, and I was totally making it worse by rambling about it…”

Minji giggled. “You’re not making it worse,” she said. “You’re honestly making it much, much better. I actually worried about the same thing, and my friends said I was being stupid, but I guess we both are.”

Yoohyeon laughed. “My friends said that too! We’re horrible, really.”

“Really horrible,” Minji agreed. They became silent for a moment. It was quite late, but there were still people out in the streets around them. Still, it seemed completely quiet where they stood. “Um, goodbye then,” Minji said at last.

“Goodbye,” Yoohyeon breathed. She stood completely still, but suddenly she moved forward and cupped Minji’s face in her hands, and then she was kissing her. It was a light, soft kiss, but it still made Minji warm all over, and all her senses were just filled with Yoohyeon, Yoohyeon, Yoohyeon— All she could think of was Yoohyeon, she was kissing her, and Minji was kissing her back and it was completely wonderful.

Yoohyeon moved back a bit, disconnecting her lips from Minji’s, but Minji was struck by the urge to keep her close for longer, so she chased Yoohyeon’s lips to connect them again, winding her arms around her waist. Yoohyeon smiled against Minji’s eager lips and responded by moving her hands from her face to the back of her neck, pulling her even closer. They just stood there, kissing, in the middle of the sidewalk right in front of the restaurant, for what seemed like ages, but somehow not long enough still. They eventually broke apart, but they didn’t let go of each other. “Wow,” Yoohyeon whispered, smiling.

“Indeed,” Minji said. Yoohyeon seemed to be shining even brighter than before, far brighter than the streetlights around them, and Minji wanted to look at her forever. “I guess we better be going…”

“Yes, I should get back to William anyway. My babysitter is probably getting impatient.” Yoohyeon giggled.

“I’ll see you later then?”

“Yeah, see you...”

They let go of each other, leaving in different directions, both thinking of how soon they would be able to see each other again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this story is moving pretty slowly, 16k words and they've only been on one date lol. but it's fine, the plot will move forward eventually i guess


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter already??? Can you believe it? I actually started writing this just after i finished the previous one, i guess i felt inspired. Also, the chapters keep getting longer, which is a good thing i guess.
> 
> I see this as set in England or something, which is the reason for random characters having english names. Maybe it's London or another big city, but i don't know anything about those places so it's kind of vague where exactly it is.
> 
> Enjoy, as you never know when the next update will be lmao

When Yoohyeon came home after the date, she found both Handong and Yubin on her couch watching tv. That is, Handong was watching, and Yubin had fallen asleep with her head on Handong’s shoulder. Handong just smiled tiredly at her when she came through the door. “How was it?” she asked quietly.

“Perfect,” Yoohyeon said. “Thank you so much for helping me, it means a lot.”

“No problem.” Handong yawned. “I should probably get back…” She patted Yubin’s arm to wake her up, and Yubin rubbed at her eyes and got up alongside Handong.

“Um, hi,” she said to Yoohyeon.

“Hmpf," was all Yubin said.

“It’s only ten thirty,” Yoohyeon commented. “I thought you’d be the type to be up all night.”

“I am,” Yubin grumbled. “Watching tv makes me sleepy.”

“Mhm,” said Yoohyeon. “You better go to bed then.”

“Did you kiss her then?” Yubin asked, changing the subject.

Yoohyeon would have blushed had it been another time, but she was too happy right now to be embarrassed. “Yes,” she said, smiling widely. “Thanks for asking.”

“Whatever,” Yubin said. She picked up her phone and shuffled to the door, leaving to go back to her own place.

“So,” Yoohyeon said, turning back to Handong. “How is that going?” She gestured towards the door.

Handong shrugged. “I don’t know what you're talking about," she said, but she smiled shyly. “Good night.” And she left as well.

Yoohyeon was tired, but not sleepy, so she just collapsed on the couch, replaying the evening in her head until every detail, from the smell of the flower on the table to the sound of Minji’s laughter, was clear as crystals in her mind.

\---

Yoohyeon didn’t have work in the morning the next day, so she let William watch tv, not taking him to kindergarten as early as usual. She gave him breakfast on the couch, letting herself mindlessly relax to the sound of the cartoons on the tv and her son’s giggling. It was nine thirty when she figured it was time to get going; just because she didn’t have work didn’t mean she could sit around all day.

“That’s the last episode,” she told William as a new show started. They usually lasted only ten minutes, so it was fine.

“Okay,” he said, and Yoohyeon wondered if he even heard her, as he was completely absorbed in the screen. He did try protesting when she turned it off after ten minutes, but she promised he could watch some more in the afternoon, and then he was happy again. “Are we going to see Cool Minji again soon?” he asked as Yoohyeon was helping him with his shoes.

“Maybe soon,” Yoohyeon said, smiling fondly. It was quite endearing how quickly William had taken a liking to Minji.

“Cool Minji is even cooler than Mummy,” William stated.

“You're probably right,” Yoohyeon laughed.

“She’s a policeman," William said, as if that was the coolest thing ever.

“Not quite a policeman exactly,” Yoohyeon said. “She’s a detective. She solves crime.”

“Cool,” William said.

Yoohyeon zipped up his jacket and picked up his bag. “Ready?” she asked, and William nodded. “Great, let’s go then. Grandma is picking you up today, okay?” she added as she locked the door behind them. “Mummy’s got work in the afternoon.”

“Why can’t Minji come instead?” William asked.

“Minji is busy," Yoohyeon explained. “And you love grandma, I’m sure you’ll have lots of fun.”

“Grandma’s not as fun as Minji,” William sulked.

“We’ll meet Minji some other day, okay?”

William nodded. “Okaaay,” he said, complainingly, but he didn’t mention wanting to meet Minji again on the rest of the way to the kindergarten.

Minji sure must have made an impression, Yoohyeon thought as she was walking back to the apartment, if William would rather be with her than with his grandma. Yoohyeon’s mother had helped her out ever since she got William, often watching him when Yoohyeon worked, and him for sleepovers now and then. William loved her, and they always did fun things together, but now Minji seemed to be the new hit. Yoohyeon was actually relieved at that, when she considered it.

She hadn’t dared to think much about her future with Minji, but now that she was sure Minji returned her feelings, and that there really was something between them, it wouldn’t hurt to dream, right? She wondered if they were girlfriends now, and discovered that just thinking about being Minji’s girlfriend made her warm inside. She didn’t want to think too far ahead, but if she did, she really hoped they would end up together for the long run. Living together, maybe getting a house eventually… It was all a dream for now, but the fact that William loved Minji so much made it all easier to think about.

There were always those stories about children who hated their parents’ new partners, but then again, William had never had another parent than Yoohyeon, so maybe that was why. And as far as he knew, Minji was only Yoohyeon’s friend. He had also never had to share Yoohyeon with anyone else, and no one had ever lived with them, so it could possibly be a problem if she and Minji were ever going to live together…

And then she found herself thinking far ahead after all, the thing she wasn’t supposed to be doing. She thought about how maybe Minji would be part of her family, that she would be William’s second parent, that they would live in a pretty house and decorate it together, and have their friends over for dinner, or have garden parties, and maybe they would get married, and— No. she shouldn’t be thinking about this yet. They had only known each other for a couple of months, and even though Yoohyeon had never felt this good about a person this quickly before, she couldn’t know if Minji felt the same.

She was pretty sure Minji liked her in the same way Yoohyeon liked her, but she probably wasn’t ready to give Yoohyeon her hand in marriage quite yet. No, it was best if Yoohyeon just put aside these thoughts for now. It was better to focus on the present, and take it one step at a time. She wasn’t even sure if Minji was looking for a serious relationship, or if she just wanted something casual, or if she saw any future with Yoohyeon at all. They would probably have to have the “where are we” conversation sooner or later, and Yoohyeon would be happy to have it sooner, but she was prepared to wait for as long as Minji wanted.

Yoohyeon spent most of the morning cleaning the apartment, which was really necessary at this point, and tried not to think too much about Minji, which was more or less impossible. She decided to go visit her mum afterwards since she hadn’t seen her in a while, and didn’t want to just see her briefly when she was dropping off William.

Her mother didn’t live too far away; part of the reason she even moved to the city was to help Yoohyeon take care of William, so it was more convenient to live nearby. “Jihyeon says hi,” her mum said when they sat down to drink some tea.

“Okay." Yoohyeon didn’t talk much to her sister, other than over the phone sometimes, especially after she moved to another city. “How is she?”

“Fine, she’s fine. Settling in well at her new job. Andrew just got a promotion too, so they seem to be well off.” Andrew was Yoohyeon’s almost-brother-in-law; he and Jihyeon weren’t married, but they had been together for several years so it was almost the same. Yoohyeon knew her mother didn’t favour her sister over her, but she felt a bit bad when she heard about how ideal her sister’s life was. Her mother never judged her, but there was no doubt she wanted Yoohyeon to have a good and stable life, especially for William. Yoohyeon thought she _had_ a good and stable life, but she had a feeling her mother thought that should include a partner as well, especially when she often talked about how Jihyeon would have a _real_ family one day. As if Yoohyeon and William wasn’t a real family. It didn’t bother her too much though; her mother had divorced her father when she was eleven and Jihyeon was thirteen, so her words were mostly empty on that subject. “What about you? Anything new in your life?”

“Um.” Yoohyeon wondered if a girlfriend would be as much worth as a boyfriend in her mother’s eyes, and briefly wondered if she would be judgemental, but decided to risk it. She would find out sooner or later anyway, if it became as serious as Yoohyeon hoped it would. “I might have a girlfriend?” She cringed at the awkward way she said it, like it was a question. Honestly she wasn’t sure if Minji even was her girlfriend yet; she would have to ask.

“Oh?” Her mother looked surprised. “You _might_? What does that mean?”

“Well, we’ve known each other for a couple of months, and we’re very close I’d say. We went on our first date yesterday, actually,” Yoohyeon explained, relieved that her mother hadn’t made an issue of the _girl_ part. Not yet at least.

“How interesting,” her mother said. “Is it serious then?”

“Um, I’d like it to be, at least,” Yoohyeon said shyly. “And I hope she feels the same. I really like her.” _Maybe even love her_, her brain unhelpfully supplied.

Her mother smiled. “That’s good. What’s her name?”

“Minji. She’s honestly the best, I’m sure you’d like her.”

“She sounds lovely.” Her mother took a sip of her tea, and Yoohyeon got the feeling that there would come a _but_. “Are you sure you know what you are doing?” she asked, setting her cup down. _There it was_.

“What do you mean?”

“You said you hoped she was as serious about your relationship as you are… What if she’s not?”

“Then she’s not,” Yoohyeon said. “But I feel like she is. And even if she’s not that serious right now… I’ll just wait until she is.”

“You’ve said that before, you know,” her mother reminded her.

“Michael was different,” Yoohyeon insisted, immediately catching her mother’s meaning. “He was an asshole; I just didn’t see it until it was too late. Minji would never keep me hanging. She’s not like that, I know she’s not. She’s one of the nicest people I know, and she likes me. Even if she’s not ready to marry me, as you probably would prefer she were, she’s still a good person and wouldn’t hurt me.” Yoohyeon was completely sure about this. She had known Minji for about two months, and felt she knew her well enough to say that.

“You seem pretty certain.” Her mother was obviously not quite convinced, but she hadn’t even met Minji, so Yoohyeon didn’t blame her. Especially after what happened with Michael… Yoohyeon knew her mother only wanted the best for her, and she would help her understand that Minji was exactly that.

“I am,” she said. “You’ll probably get to meet her soon, you’ll see. And remember, Michael left when I got pregnant. Minji _loves_ William. She even watched him for a whole day last week when you were out of town. So that wouldn’t be a problem, at least.”

“Well, that’s good,” her mother agreed. “You know I just want you to be happy.”

“I know,” Yoohyeon said. “I am happy.” She meant it too. She felt like she had the chance to be happier than ever.

There were still a few hours until she had work in the afternoon when she left her mother’s house, so she decided to text Minji. She had honestly been dying to text her all day, but didn’t want to disturb her at work, but now she figured a simple text wouldn’t hurt. If Minji was busy, she just wouldn’t reply, easy as that. Minji had texted her from work before, it was probably fine. She just sent a simple _hi_ at first, to see if Minji had time to talk to her.

_Hi_, Minji replied almost right away.

_How are you?_ Yoohyeon followed up with.

_I’m at work, so could have been better._

_That’s too bad._

_It really is. I’d much rather be with you ;)_

_Me too :/ Can’t wait to see you again._

_Wanna talk? Coffee break rn, I could call you_

_Yes pls_

“Miss me already?” Minji asked when Yoohyeon picked up.

“Yes,” Yoohyeon replied honestly.

“Me too. I had a wonderful time last night. Can’t wait to see you again.”

Yoohyeon’s heart fluttered. “Me neither. Are you free tomorrow?” Was it too soon to meet again two days after their first date? In any case, she didn’t care. She just wanted to see Minji again.

“Really?” Minji asked, laughing through the phone. “I mean, yes, I am free actually. When and where?”

“Um, anywhere you want. My last class ends at five thirty, so any time after that is fine.” Yoohyeon had just seen Minji yesterday, but she still felt just as excited.

“Sounds great,” Minji said. “Why don’t we just get some coffee, maybe take a walk in the park or something. I know I could really use it after being stuck in the office for eight hours.”

“Me too,” Yoohyeon said, “after being stuck inside the studio. It’s supposed to be sunny I think.”

“Great!” Minji said. Yoohyeon could hear her smile through the phone, and it made her smile as well.

“Er, do you mind if I bring William, by the way? He’s kind of been bugging me to see you again. You must have really made an impression.” Yoohyeon wondered if Minji might think it was weird that she wanted to bring her son, and almost regretted asking. “I mean, only if it’s okay with you. He’s just very persistent, you know how kids are…”

“Of course!” Minji said, and any regret Yoohyeon might have felt a second ago disappeared at the sound of her enthusiastic voice. “He’s a great kid, of course I don’t mind. I mean, he’s probably my biggest fan, I couldn’t deny him anything.”

Yoohyeon smiled. “He’s going to be so happy, you’ve no idea. My mother was actually going to pick him up from kindergarten tomorrow, but he’s already complained that grandma isn’t as cool as Minji, so he’ll be thrilled.”

“I’m glad to hear someone appreciates my company that much,” Minji laughed. “When is he finished in kindergarten, by the way?”

“It closes at five, I think, so my mother will probably pick him up sometime before that, and I can go pick him up at hers afterwards…”

“Why don’t I pick him up?” Minji said. “I get off at four thirty, so I can be there by five. Then your mother won’t have to take the extra trip, and we can meet you at the studio at five thirty.”

“Oh, okay!” Yoohyeon said, surprised. “If you want. William will be pleased, at least.”

“Then it’s a deal," Minji said. “I should probably get back to work soon, can’t let Bora do everything on her own…”

“Yeah, probably.” Minji hung up, but Yoohyeon kept smiling at her phone for a whole minute after.

The next morning, when Yoohyeon told William that Minji would be the one to pick him up from kindergarten, he was at least as excited as she was.

\---

Yoohyeon had texted Minji the address of William’s kindergarten, and Minji kept double-checking to make sure she was in the right place. She hadn’t been to a kindergarten since she was that age herself, but the building she was standing in front of right now sure looked like one. It wasn’t that far from Yoohyeon’s yoga studio, but it was on a quiet street with little traffic, and she could hear the noise from the playground behind the building.

There were many parents collecting their children when Minji arrived, as the kindergarten was closing soon, and Minji went around the back to look for William, figuring he was probably outside with the other kids. “Minji!” a voice suddenly called, but it wasn’t William’s voice. She turned around, and a familiar person came running towards her.

“Gahyeon?” Minji said, surprised. Gahyeon was Siyeon’s younger cousin, and Minji knew she worked at a kindergarten, but she didn’t know it was this one.

“Hi!” Gahyeon said, smiling brightly. She was wearing loose jeans and a bright orange sweater, her long hair in a high ponytail. Her jeans had green stains on the knees, probably from playing with the children. She looked like the cosiest kindergarten employee ever, and as Minji knew her, she wouldn’t be surprised if Gahyeon was the children’s favourite “adult”. She was always happy and smiling, and one of the sweetest people Minji knew.

“Hi,” Minji said. “I’m here to pick up William.”

Gahyeon raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Oh? Didn’t know you managed to become a mum already?” She giggled. “He’s over there,” she added, pointing to a sandbox in the middle of the playground.

“Thanks,” Minji said.

“You know Yoohyeon then?” Gahyeon asked.

“Yes,” Minji said. “She’s my, uh, friend.” She wasn’t sure if she could call Yoohyeon her girlfriend yet, so she decided not to. Maybe Yoohyeon didn’t want all kinds of random people to know about her relationships either, so Minji opted for calling her a friend, for now.

“She’s so nice, Yoohyeon,” Gahyeon said. “I’ve talked to her a few times, when she’s come to get William, or when she’s dropping him off. Most of the parents here are very nice, but she’s one of my favourites.” Gahyeon laughed again, and Minji smiled, not doubting that it was true.

“I’m off to meet her actually, when she’s finished at work,” she explained. “We’re taking William to the park or something.”

“That’s nice,” Gahyeon said. “Say hi from me then!”

“I will,” Minji smiled, and then Gahyeon had to go tend to a girl that had fallen and hurt her knee, so she went over to the sandbox to find William. “William?” she said. “Ready to go?”

He turned around, and his eyes lit up when he saw her. “Cool Minji!” he exclaimed. He abandoned his pile of sand and got up to hug her legs.

“Hi to you too,” Minji laughed. “Wanna go? We’re gonna go see Mummy and then we’re going to the park, sounds good?”

“Okay,” said William. He waved goodbye to his friends and took Minji’s offered hand, and they went back to the building to get his backpack. Minji also remembered to bring his jacket along as well; it was in the wardrobe with his backpack, since it had been so warm that day that he didn’t need it. They walked to Yoohyeon’s studio as it wasn’t so far, and Minji carried William’s backpack for him when he asked nicely.

“We’ll just sit here and wait for Mummy, alright? She’ll be out in a bit,” Minji said as they sat down in the waiting area.

“Can I look at YouTube?” William asked, looking at Minji with big eyes.

“Uhm…” Minji thought about it. It was about fifteen minutes till Yoohyeon’s last class finished, so maybe it was a good idea to keep him entertained until that, but at the same time she didn’t know what Yoohyeon usually allowed him to do. “Okay,” she decided. It was probably fine just for the time being. “Just until Mummy comes, alright?”

William nodded, and Minji looked up some kids shows on her phone, and gave it to him. “This alright?” she asked, and William nodded again, already looking on her phone screen. “Thank you,” he said, and Minji cooed at his cute voice. “You're welcome,” she said, smiling.

After about fifteen minutes, the door to one of the rooms opened, and a group of yoga-goers poured out, with Yoohyeon smiling and waving at all of them as she held the door open for them. She spotted Minji and William and waved at them too, though William was too preoccupied to notice. “I’ll just go change, I’ll be right out,” Yoohyeon said, and left for the changing rooms.

“Should we go get something to eat?” she asked when she came back.

“Sounds good,” Minji said. She got her phone back from William, and he got up to hug his mum, and she lifted him up and kissed his cheeks. Minji thought it was adorable.

“Did you have fun at kindergarten, darling?” Yoohyeon asked William.

“Yes!” he said, smiling. “I made a sandcastle!”

Minji smiled, thinking back to the shapeless pile of sand he had been playing with in the sandbox.

“Really?” Yoohyeon said. “How exciting. Were you good when Minji came to get you?”

“Yes, I was very good,” William promised. “Right I was good?” he asked Minji.

“Yes, very,” said Minji. “No fuss at all.”

“Good,” Yoohyeon said, smiling at William and stroking his cheek. “Let’s go then.”

Minji suggested they go to the café Siyeon worked at, so they could say hi to her as well. William walked between them, holding both their hands in each of his little ones. Minji couldn’t help but think that they looked like a family, and it was honestly a nice thought.

They found a small round table in the busy café, and Minji spotted Siyeon at another table, pouring coffee and chatting mindlessly with the guests as she always did. The pour guests at her current table looked a little overwhelmed, and seemed almost relieved when Siyeon noticed Minji and forgot about them completely. “Hey!” she called, making her way through the crowd, waving her coffee mug. “Didn’t know you guys were coming. I could have found you a better table.” She looked around. “Or maybe not. It’s pretty busy today, actually.”

Yoohyeon laughed. “This is just fine,” she said as she helped William onto his chair.

“And who’s this little guy?” Siyeon said, bending to reach William’s eye level and ruffling his hair.

“William,” he said shyly, still unsure of strangers.

“He’s so cute!” Siyeon said.

“He’s in Gahyeon’s kindergarten,” Minji supplied. “She says hi, by the way. Not to you though, only to Yoohyeon.”

Siyeon frowned. “There’s no need to be rude,” she said, flipping her hair and pretending to be offended. “Anyways, what can I get you? Not you Minji, just Yoohyeon,” she added, mimicking Minji’s last sentence and laughing.

“Some coffee would be great,” Yoohyeon said. “It’s been a long day.”

“Yeah, for me too,” Minji said.

“Anything to eat? Any cakey or yummy stuff?” Siyeon asked. “Or just real food?”

“Real food, thanks," Minji said. “Just got off work.”

“Did Bora go home, by the way?” Siyeon asked.

“I think so, she said she was going to get groceries on the way though,” Minji replied.

“Great,” Siyeon said. “I hope she’s not planning on making dinner.” She laughed. “Anywhoooo, we have lots of real food as well as yummy food,” she continued. “We got some soups, sandwiches, salads, mostly lunch stuff really. It’s not a very fancy place, as you can tell by the staff.” She giggled at her own joke.

“No, the staff hasn’t been very good so far,” Minji agreed, and Yoohyeon laughed, her eyes crinkling.

“Let’s hear about some of those soups then,” Yoohyeon said, still smiling.

She and Minji both ordered soup; Minji’s was carrot and ginger, Yoohyeon’s was tomato and chili. William got a cheese sandwich, claiming that he didn’t like any soups at all. Siyeon came by again with their coffee and William’s sandwich, and later with their soup, and she stayed to chat each time.

“So,” she said when she came to refill their water. “How is it going with you two?” Her expression stated clearly that she didn’t just mean in general.

“Um,” Minji said, not quite knowing how to answer.

“It’s going great!” Yoohyeon jumped in, saving Minji the trouble.

“Uh-huh, how great?” Siyeon pushed. “Should we expect our wedding invitation soon?”

Minji blushed terribly, and although Yoohyeon’s cheeks might be a little red as well, she seemed to keep it together. “Not quite yet,” she said, laughing, “but maybe a Christmas card?”

“Oh, that great?” Siyeon giggled.

“Christmas is half a year away, Siyeon,” Minji deadpanned.

“Still!” Siyeon insisted. “If you send Christmas cards together, it’s really serious.” Minji resisted rolling her eyes. “Anyways, how did it go on Tuesday?” Siyeon asked, turning to Yoohyeon. “Minji won’t say anything.”

“Um, it was fine,” Yoohyeon said.

“Stop being so pushy,” Minji said. “Don’t you have any customers?”

“They can probably wait,” Siyeon meant.

“Alright then,” Minji said. “I think we should get a wedding invite from you and Bora before you get one from us, by the way.”

“Maybe you will,” Siyeon said stubbornly. “But I have a lot of customers, as you said, so I have to go, bye.” And then she left.

“She can be so annoying sometimes,” Minji sighed.

“You guys are funny though,” Yoohyeon said, eating a piece of cucumber she had picked off William’s sandwich because he didn’t like them. “With all your bickering. It’s cute.”

“Um, thanks,” Minji said, blushing.

They went to the park after that. Yoohyeon lead the way to a playground she knew would be there somewhere, and they both sat down on a bench once they arrived, letting William run over to the slide.

“There’s something we should talk about,” Yoohyeon said, looking seriously at Minji.

“Okay?” Minji said, slightly nervous.

“I just want to figure out where we’re at,” Yoohyeon elaborated.

“Oh, right,” Minji said. She had planned to arrive at that subject herself at some point, but Yoohyeon had beaten her to it, clearly wanting to get straight to it. “Yes, we should talk about that.”

“So,” Yoohyeon said. “Where are we then?”

“Um. Where do you want to be?”

“I guess I’ll just be completely honest,” Yoohyeon said, ducking her head and tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Tuesday was wonderful. I know we’ve only known each other for a couple of months, and only been on one real date, but I really, really like you. And it’s like we’ve known each other for far longer, to be honest, and I just want to know you for even longer than that. I feel like I can … trust you. Like with William. I wouldn’t have let you watch him if I didn’t trust you. I don’t really know where exactly we are, but I feel like we’re in the right place, do you know what I mean?” She looked almost nervous, as if she were afraid that Minji would reject her.

“Yes,” Minji said, trying to sound reassuring. “I know exactly what you mean. I feel the same way.” And she really did. She didn’t quite know how to put it in words, but she felt like whatever Yoohyeon described, she was in the same place. She decided to just speak, and see if she could describe her feelings. “I feel completely comfortable being with you, but at the same time I’m kind of nervous, because I never knew exactly how you felt. But now that I do, I’m so relieved, because that’s how I feel as well.” She reached out for Yoohyeon’s hand, and Yoohyeon grabbed it. “I want us to be together.”

Yoohyeon smiled. “I want that too. And I’m not looking for anything casual, just so you know," she quickly added. “I just … want a relationship.”

“Me too,” Minji said.

“Great,” Yoohyeon said. “Then, do you want to be my girlfriend?”

“I’d love that,” Minji said, and she couldn’t stop smiling. Her mind was going a thousand miles per hour, and her heart was beating like crazy, but at the same time she felt calm. As if she could finally lower her shoulders after being slightly tense for two months. She had wanted Yoohyeon so much, never being a hundred percent sure whether she wanted her the same way, and now she was her girlfriend. It was the most wonderful feeling she had ever felt.

They just sat there, holding hands and smiling ridiculously at one another, for what felt like ages. It was like they were in their own magical bubble, and nothing could burst it. “Mummy!” William suddenly called, running towards them. He had a dandelion in his hand, and he gave placed it carefully in Yoohyeon’s hand.

“Aw, thanks darling,” Yoohyeon said, smiling at him.

He giggled, and then he reached out his other hand. “For Minji,” he said, and presented her with a tiny buttercup.

Minji’s heart burst in a million pieces at his sweet little voice, and she picked him up, buttercup in hand, and placed him on her lap. “That’s so sweet of you honey,” she said, kissing his cheek. He giggled, and Yoohyeon moved closer to kiss his other cheek. “You’re so nice to Mummy and Minji, how good of you,” she said, and Minji reached up to place the buttercup behind her ear. Yoohyeon smiled adoringly at her, and Minji felt like the luckiest person in the world.

William hopped down and skipped away to play again after a minute or so, and Yoohyeon leaned her head on Minji’s shoulder. Minji wrapped her arm around her and kissed the top of her head. “Will he understand?” she asked.

“That we’re together?” Yoohyeon said.

“Mhm.”

“I don’t know. I’ve never dated anyone after I had him.” She sighed. “You know, he’s never asked about his dad. He’s noticed that other kids have two parents of course, but he’s never asked why he only has one.”

“He’s got everything he need,” Minji said. “You’re a great parent.”

“Thanks. But I always wondered, if I ever, you know, found someone… If they would be his parent too, if he would accept them as his parent, if they would even want to be. You always hear about kids who don’t like their parent’s new partner, or the partner doesn’t like the kids, or doesn’t want any kids to begin with. I wouldn’t know what to do if that happened, to be honest.”

The confession struck Minji like a bolt of lightning. It was some of Yoohyeon’s most inner concerns, no doubt, and wouldn’t have been easy to say. That she shared them with her, made Minji feel special, and it also made her want to reassure Yoohyeon about it. “You don’t have to worry about that with me, at least,” Minji said. “I don’t know what’ll happen in the future, or how our relationship will be, but I can promise that as long as you have me, William will have me too."

“I know," Yoohyeon said, a smile in her voice. “And that’s why I’m so happy now. I know that it’s not a problem, because you’re great with William, and he loves you, so I’m not worried about it anymore.” She seemed so genuine Minji almost wanted to cry.

“I’m glad," Minji said, resting her head on Yoohyeon’s. She had meant what she said, she realised. She had thought earlier that they all looked like a family, and found that she wouldn’t mind one bit if they actually became one sometime in the future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They're officially a couple! Yay! Their confessions were a bit clumsy, bc i don't know how to write those, but i figured it worked with their characters :)
> 
> Just made up a random sister for Yoohyeon. Didnt want to find a name for her mother though, so i just didnt lol. Gahyeon as a kindergarten employee is the cutest thing ever btw, i loved writing that bit! Yoohyeon, Minji and William is also the cutest little family, or will be in the future at least o.o


End file.
